roustabout

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Shane's father, Maurice, who also described himself as something of a "roustabout", would, he said, try to read James Joyce's famously impenetrable, Finnegan's Wake with an 11-year-old Shane.

From BBC • Nov. 30, 2023

As a former construction worker, he had the foundation, with some additional training, to begin working as a roustabout, assembling and repairing equipment in the offshore oil industry two years ago.

From Seattle Times • May 4, 2023

Their works and lives were dazzling, disruptive; their “beating heart,” per Calhoun, was the late, incandescent poet, curator and adored roustabout, Frank O’Hara — whom Schjeldahl idolized.

From Washington Post • Jun. 17, 2022

That’s when he got to know the owner-resident, a woman named Lola Sweet, a say-anything barfly and town roustabout, who cared for her son, Tommy Cosman.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 24, 2019

Nobody with a smidgen of training, not even the worst roustabout, would look right in a grown person’s face.

From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou