| 释义 |
▪ I. rouseabout, n.|ˈraʊzəbaʊt|
[f. rouse v.1]
1. dial. (See quots. 1778 and 1886.)
1746Exmoor Scolding (E.D.S.) 30 A rubbacrock, rouze⁓about..swashbucket. 1778― Gloss., A Rouzabout, a restless Creature never easy at Home, but roaming from Place to Place. Also, a Sort of large Pease [etc.]. 1886Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. 633 Rouse-about..implies coarseness, roughness, awkwardness, yet withal bustling activity.
2. Austral. and N.Z.
a. A man or boy employed on a sheep station; an odd man on a farm. Cf. roustabout n.
1861[see fleece-picker s.v. fleece n. 6]. 1881Chamb. Jrnl. Mar. 157 Rouseabouts are men and boys who pen the sheep, pick up the fleeces as they are shorn, sort and pack the wool [etc.]. 1890Melbourne Argus 20 Sept. 13/6 The shearers hold themselves as the aristocrats of the shed, and never associate with the ‘rouse-abouts’. 1893J. A. Barry S. Brown's Bunyip 280 The everlasting drudgery of the rouseabout. 1901M. Franklin My Brilliant Career xvii. 150 Joe Slocombe, the man who acted as groom and rouseabout, was waiting for me. 1909‘S. Rudd’ From Selection to City ix. 76 Numbers of shearers and rouseabouts had arrived on the scene before us, and the station was all astir. 1917A. B. Paterson Saltbush Bill 8 Come all you little rouseabouts and climb upon my knee. 1936A. Russell Gone Nomad iii. 19, I..was able to throw, skirt, and roll a fleece with the crack rouseabout of the shed. 1947D. M. Davin Gorse blooms Pale 81 I'm not letting Joe get buggered about by any bloody fly-by-night rouseabout. 1961N.Z. Listener 26 May 8/1 The rouseabout and presser had just finished clearing up. 1966‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 181 As a boy milker, manager, rouseabout, stud⁓master, and jackeroo on our place I became aware of the prevailing bad manners among some cows.
b. transf. An odd-job man or general worker; a casual labourer. Austral. and N.Z.
1906E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands ii. 15 Billy the Boy, the juvenile rouseabout from the printer's flat. 1911E. M. Clowes On Wallaby iii. 64 It is to land so won and so held that every casual ‘rouseabout’ or street loafer feels that he has a perfect right. 1933Bulletin (Sydney) 7 June 20/1 The rouseabout at Casey's pub was sacked. 1951Cusack & James Come in Spinner 39 They'll probably stick you in as rouseabouts in a lunatic asylum, seeing the experience you've 'ad 'ere.
c. attrib., as rouseabout swiper, rouseabout work.
1887J. Farrell How he Died 19 It may be that the rouseabout swiper who rode for the doctor that night Is in Heaven with the Hosts of the Blest, robed and sceptred, and splendid with light. 1906E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands xii. 148 A man was engaged to assist at the guillotines and do the rouseabout work of the factory. 1934J. Lilico Sheep Dog Mem. 27 [The dogs] would head, lead, huntaway, force and back, though..they were best at rouseabout work.
3. rouse-about block, a large snatch-block.
1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2230/1.
▪ II. rouseabout, v. Austral.|ˈraʊzəbaʊt|
[f. rouseabout n. 2.]
intr. To work as a rouseabout. Hence ˈrouseabouting vbl. n.
1914Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Dec. 44/2, I never done no shearin'; but I rouseabouted one year in a shed near Muttaburra. 1945Baker Austral. Lang. ii. iii. 61 We..now speak of jackerooing (just as we speak of rouseabouting), for work as a station-hand. 1967Southerly XXVII. 205 Writing, he said, came easier than..shearing, station rouseabouting. |