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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Thousands of longshoremen and dockworkers along the Eastern seaboard of the United States and the Gulf Coast walked off the job on Tuesday after the International Longshoremen's Association failed to reach contract agreements with the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents the ports.—
Jack Kelly,
Forbes,
3 Oct. 2024
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Other lawsuits have been filed by the state of Maryland, the city of Baltimore and scores of longshoremen who lost work when the harbor shut down.—
Christopher Cann,
USA Today,
26 Mar. 2025
Noun
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The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents West Coast dockworkers, said the extra charges would encourage carriers to unload cargo outside the U.S. and then truck it across the borders with Mexico and Canada.—
Glenn Taylor,
Sourcing Journal,
24 Mar. 2025
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Key Facts The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), which represents more than 85,000 dockworkers, reached a tentative deal with shippers and port operators Wednesday without disclosing its details, according to ABC News, as the agreement still requires a vote by union members.—
Molly Bohannon,
Forbes,
8 Jan. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Roustabout.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/roustabout. Accessed 24 Apr. 2025.
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