ˈrouster
[f. roust v.2]
1. U.S. = roustabout n. 1.
| 1883 American VI. 40 Men..who used to be rousters, and are now broken down and played out. 1929 B. L. Burman Mississippi iii. 47 A rouster, with two coffee sacks tied around his body..lay on the boiler deck strumming a guitar. 1938 ― Blow for Landing xiv. 236 Barrels began to roll swiftly down the gang⁓plank, like a bass-drum accompaniment for the feet of the negro rousters. 1941 [see coonjine n. and v.]. |
2. U.S. and Austral. = roustabout n. 2.
| 1890 in Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang. 1911 C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling xxxviii. 338 There tumbled out of it all the sweepings of Sydney, all the old cripples, and beggars, and rousters in Christendom. |