| 释义 |
▪ I. roustabout, n.|ˈraʊstəbaʊt|
[f. roust v.2]
1. U.S. A wharf labourer or deck hand.
1868Putnam's Mag. Sept. 342 As the steamer was leaving the levée, about forty black deck-hands or ‘roustabouts’ gathered at the bows. 1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 225 The Western rough is frequently a roustabout. 1891C. Roberts Adrift Amer. 216 On all these river boats most of the men employed are what is termed roustabouts, and are just ordinary labourers who are picked up anywhere.
2. a. orig. U.S. A handy man. Cf. rouseabout n. 2. Also, a casual or unskilled labourer; a vagrant or layabout.
1877Harper's Weekly 17 Mar. 3/3 The vagabonds, the roustabouts, the criminals, and all the dregs of society seem to be Democrats. 1880A. A. Hayes New Colorado v. 77 He was a kind of rostabout [sic], or dish-washer, to a camping outfit. 1883Longm. Mag. June 178 This poor young man had been a ‘roustabout’ hand on a station. 1883‘Mark Twain’ Life on Mississippi li. 454 Do you mean the Roman army?—those six sandalled roustabouts in nightshirts? 1896Daily Chron. 15 Aug. 11/1, I was working on a Queensland gold-field once, first as ‘feeder’ and general ‘roustabout’, then as engine-driver. 1896J. McDougall Saddle, Sled & Snowshoe xv. 187, I have been Mr. Woolsey's interpreter, guide, and general ‘roust-about’, his confidante and friend, for the past two years. 1911H. S. Harrison Queed 35 It takes a Whitney to invent the cotton gin, but the dullest negro roustabout can operate it. a1918G. Stuart 40 Yrs. on Frontier (1925) II. 179 Every man, whether owner of the largest herd or a humble roustabout, takes his orders from the captain. 1942E. H. Paul Narrow St. xix. 152 Butchers, roustabouts and helpers..toiled steadily in the lamplight. 1960H. Miller Nexus (1964) xiv. 237 I've got a good wife, only we're temperamentally unsuited to one another. I'm too common for her. Too much of a roustabout.
b. spec. A workman in a circus. N. Amer.
1931Amer. Mercury Nov. 353/2 Razorbacks,..Work⁓men who load and unload the circus train; never called roustabouts or flunkeys. 1949Los Angeles Times 9 Apr. 2/3 Roustabouts from the Clyde Beatty circus appeared to offer any manual labor needed. 1957Harper's Bazaar Feb. 175 He may earn his living as a petty criminal, a hobo, a carnival roustabout or a free-lance moving man in Greenwich Village. 1976Telegraph-Jrnl. (St. John, New Brunswick) 4 Sept. 32/1 From a carnival roustabout to owner of the show in 25 years.
3. A general or manual labourer on an oil installation.
1948H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 763 Roustabout, a laborer on an oil lease, not a member of the rig crew. 1959Larson & Porter Hist. Humble Oil & Refining Co. xii. 291 The next annual crop of new engineers was..put to work for a year as roughnecks or roustabouts. 1971C. Simpson New Australia 518 The average young oilfield worker, called a ‘roustabout’, needed to have more than muscles. Technical competence was also called for. 1972L. M. Harris Introd. Deepwater Floating Drilling Operations iv. 35 Drilling and roustabout crew requirements differ little from rig to rig. 1975Offshore Engineer Dec. 54/1 (Advt.), The clothing was tested on the rig Sedco 700, operating close to the 62nd parallel, by supervisors and roustabouts on the nightshift.
▪ II. roustabout, v.|ˈraʊstəbaʊt|
[f. prec.]
intr. To be, or work as, a roustabout.
1907‘O. Henry’ in Everybody's Mag. Nov. 593/1, I hurried the rest of the way up the river, roustabouting on a lower coast packet that made a landing for every fisherman that wanted a plug of tobacco. 1934in Amer. Ballads & Folk Songs 494 When Jack is old and weather⁓beat, Too old to roustabout. |