Word Study
roustabout
CIDE DICTIONARY
roustabout, n. [Etymol. uncertain.].
A laborer, especially a deck hand, on a river steamboat, who moves the cargo, loads and unloads wood, and the like; in an opprobrious sense, a shiftless vagrant who lives by chance jobs. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
roustabout, n.
1 a labourer on an oil rig.
2 an unskilled or casual labourer.
3 US a dock labourer or deck hand.
4 Austral. = ROUSEABOUT.
1 a labourer on an oil rig.
2 an unskilled or casual labourer.
3 US a dock labourer or deck hand.
4 Austral. = ROUSEABOUT.
THESAURUS
roustabout
bakehead, black gang, blue-collar worker, boilerman, breadwinner, bungs, cabin boy, casual, casual laborer, chips, commissary steward, common laborer, complement, day laborer, deckhand, deckie, docker, dockhand, employee, factory worker, fireman, flunky, free lance, free-lancer, full-time worker, gun loader, gunner, hand, hospital steward, industrial worker, jobber, jobholder, laborer, laboring man, landing signalman, loader, longshoreman, mail orderly, menial, migrant, moiler, navigator, navvy, office temporary, oiler, operative, proletarian, purser, radio operator, salaried worker, self-employed person, servant, snip, snips, sparks, stevedore, steward, stewardess, stiff, stoker, temporary, toiler, torpedoman, wage earner, wage slave, wageworker, watch, wharf hand, worker, workgirl, workhand, working girl, workingman, workingwoman, workman, yeomanROGET THESAURUS
roustabout
Agent
N doer, actor, agent, performer, perpetrator, operator, executor, executrix, practitioner, worker, stager, bee, ant, working bee, termite, white ant, laboring oar, servant of all work, factotum, workman, artisan, craftsman, handicraftsman, mechanic, operative, working man, laboring man, demiurgus, hewers of wood and drawers of water, laborer, navvy, hand, man, day laborer, journeyman, charwoman, hack, mere tool, beast of burden, drudge, fag, lumper, roustabout, maker, artificer, artist, wright, manufacturer, architect, builder, mason, bricklayer, smith, forger, Vulcan, carpenter, ganger, platelayer, blacksmith, locksmith, sailmaker, wheelwright, machinist, mechanician, engineer, sempstress, semstress, seamstress, needlewoman, workwoman, tailor, cordwainer, minister, servant, representative, coworker, party to, participator in, particeps criminis, dramatis personae, personnel, quorum pars magna fui, faber est quisque fortunae suae.For further exploring for "roustabout" in Webster Dictionary Online