as in stevedore
one who loads and unloads ships at a port
sought work as a roustabout on the city's seedy waterfront
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Recent Examples of roustabout
His young mother, Beatrice, had married an engineer and roustabout named Horace Seidner who turned out not to be the family type.
—
Penelope Green, New York Times, 13 Oct. 2022
Cox would work his way up from a roustabout and roughneck to eventually leading an oil and gas company as well as other notable businesses.
—Dallas News, 7 Nov. 2020
The shale patch was the Wild West reborn, featuring poker games with $1000 buy-ins, boisterous strip clubs packed with roustabouts and brawling in the muddy streets illuminated by columns of flaring gas.
—Shawn Tully, Fortune, 30 Apr. 2020
The Showmen's League Of America commemorates the 1918 Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train disaster which killed 86 circus performers and roustabouts and injured 127, at Showman's Rest in Wood Lawn Cemetery in Forest Park, Ill., on Thursday, May 5, 2018.
—Dawn Mitchell, Indianapolis Star, 20 Feb. 2020
See all Example Sentences for roustabout 
Penelope Green, New York Times, 13 Oct. 2022
Cox would work his way up from a roustabout and roughneck to eventually leading an oil and gas company as well as other notable businesses.
—Dallas News, 7 Nov. 2020
The shale patch was the Wild West reborn, featuring poker games with $1000 buy-ins, boisterous strip clubs packed with roustabouts and brawling in the muddy streets illuminated by columns of flaring gas.
—Shawn Tully, Fortune, 30 Apr. 2020
The Showmen's League Of America commemorates the 1918 Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train disaster which killed 86 circus performers and roustabouts and injured 127, at Showman's Rest in Wood Lawn Cemetery in Forest Park, Ill., on Thursday, May 5, 2018.
—Dawn Mitchell, Indianapolis Star, 20 Feb. 2020
See all Example Sentences for roustabout
Recent Examples of Synonyms for roustabout
Noun
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Docks depended on a circulating pool of male maritime workers—crews of seamen and stokers who manned the tramp steamers, gangs of longshoremen, and stevedores who loaded and unloaded goods, as well as artisans and machinists who maintained and repaired the ships and trains.—
Michael Denning,
Foreign Affairs,
21 Aug. 2015
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America dodged a sledgehammer on Thursday night, when striking stevedores reached a tentative agreement to return to work.—
Dan Primack,
Axios,
4 Oct. 2024
Noun
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More than a decade before the Dali container ship toppled Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, a Seattle longshoreman named Roger Murray climbed aboard another vessel managed by the same Singaporean company.—
USA TODAY,
USA TODAY,
25 Sep. 2024
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Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, days after the strike deadline, appeared to side with longshoremen on the issue of automation last month.—
Taylor Giorno,
The Hill,
8 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Tens of thousands of dockworkers reached a tentative agreement Wednesday on a new, six-year contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents 14 major ports from Boston to Miami and along the Gulf Coast from Mobile, Alabama, to Houston.—
Steve Kopack,
NBC News,
9 Jan. 2025
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Target executives also noted that the company, like other retailers, had to reroute some merchandise when the union representing about 45,000 dockworkers went on strike for the first time since 1977.—
Anne D'Innocenzio,
Fortune,
20 Nov. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near roustabout
Cite this Entry
“Roustabout.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/roustabout. Accessed 21 Feb. 2025.
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