: having the characteristics of or suitable for a roughneck
Examples of roughneck in a Sentence
Noun
a town overrun by roughnecks
a group of roughnecks like to hang out at the roadhouse and harass people
Adjective
their roughneck antics were amusing only if you were as drunk as they were
Recent Examples on the Web
Brent Crane, The New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2025
Rico was played by squared jaw roughneck Casper Van Dien and the cast included Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Neil Patrick Harris and Michael Ironside.
—Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Jason Bailey, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2025
That sequence feels like it might have been made by one of those roughneck filmmakers in the early days of Hollywood, just hauling a lot of equipment and stuntmen out to the desert and risking their lives to make some crazed, truly dangerous action set piece.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 22 May 2024
See All Example Sentences for roughneck
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Noun
During my trip, Moore’s corps of consultants and roughnecks were drilling the fifth borehole of their experimental project.
—Brent Crane, The New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2025
Rico was played by squared jaw roughneck Casper Van Dien and the cast included Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Neil Patrick Harris and Michael Ironside.
—Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Adjective
Cage plays the title character, a working-class guy with a dark past who supervises a crew of roughneck woodsmen.
—Jason Bailey, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2025
That sequence feels like it might have been made by one of those roughneck filmmakers in the early days of Hollywood, just hauling a lot of equipment and stuntmen out to the desert and risking their lives to make some crazed, truly dangerous action set piece.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 22 May 2024
See All Example Sentences for roughneck
Cite this Entry
“Roughneck.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/roughneck. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share