The AI-powered English dictionary
plural roughnecks
(colloquial, chiefly US) Someone with rough manners; a rowdy or uncouth person. quotations examples
LaTisha has long wanted to show Carole sheʼs not the roughneck she used to be, the roughneck who wasnʼt good enough to be her friend.
2019, Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other, Penguin Books (2020), page 202
(colloquial, chiefly US) An ironworker; a dirty or low-paid worker, a labourer. examples
(colloquial, chiefly US) A labourer on an oil rig. quotations examples
As for the minerals, there has been a good deal of drilling along the big river; trucks and roughnecks no longer garner any notice.
2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 286
third-person singular simple present roughnecks, present participle roughnecking, simple past and past participle roughnecked
To work as a laborer on an oil rig. quotations examples
There was a time not long ago when this region appeared as some enduring mystification, its citizenry best known for roughnecking on the North Slope […]
2009 January 13, Michael Brick, “Racing's Last Frontier”, in New York Times