as in stevedore
one who loads and unloads ships at a port a hard-muscled man who certainly looked like he had worked all his life as a rouster

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for rouster
Noun
  • Docks depended on a circulating pool of male maritime workers—crews of seamen and stokers who manned the tramp steamers, gangs of longshoremen, and stevedores who loaded and unloaded goods, as well as artisans and machinists who maintained and repaired the ships and trains.
    Michael Denning, Foreign Affairs, 21 Aug. 2015
  • America dodged a sledgehammer on Thursday night, when striking stevedores reached a tentative agreement to return to work.
    Dan Primack, Axios, 4 Oct. 2024
Noun
  • West End performer Simon Bailey takes on the lead role of a modern-day showman, while newcomer Aaliya Mai makes her professional debut as Max, a shy young roustabout.
    Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 24 Sep. 2024
  • The musical’s book by Rick Elice, based not just on the 2011 movie but also on the 2006 novel by Sara Gruen, is set among the performers and roustabouts of a ramshackle circus at the depths of the Depression.
    Jesse Green, New York Times, 21 Mar. 2024
Noun
  • Thousands of longshoremen and dockworkers along the Eastern seaboard of the United States and the Gulf Coast walked off the job on Tuesday after the International Longshoremen's Association failed to reach contract agreements with the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents the ports.
    Jack Kelly, Forbes, 3 Oct. 2024
  • Other lawsuits have been filed by the state of Maryland, the city of Baltimore and scores of longshoremen who lost work when the harbor shut down.
    Christopher Cann, USA Today, 26 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Two of the eight tainted Tylenol bottles came from Jewel stores in the northwest suburbs, though neither had passed through the Melrose Park warehouse where Arnold had long worked for Jewel as a dockhand.
    Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 29 Sep. 2022
  • Alhonna is the genesis of the crime drama, where screenwriter Bill Dubuque worked as a dockhand in his youth at the comfortable, somewhat dated, lake retreat.
    Mike and Wendy Pramik, cleveland, 7 July 2022
Noun
  • Both ports, based out of the Netherlands and Belgium respectively, have endured multiple union dockworker strikes over several days in February that have slowed operations.
    Glenn Taylor, Sourcing Journal, 4 Mar. 2025
  • That is comparable to the pay for dockworkers on the West Coast, represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, whose wages will rise to nearly $61 in 2027.
    Peter Eavis, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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“Rouster.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rouster. Accessed 22 Apr. 2025.

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