roughneck

plural roughnecks

1. UScolloquialA labourer on an oil rig or in the oilpatch, either skilled or semiskilled.First known use 20th c.

   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

   1 more example

   This first ship had a small geophysical-type drilling rig mounted over the side of the ship with a steel grid runround for the roughnecks, who stood in knee-deep water while making connections or pulling the drill string.

   1992, Elmer P. Wheaton, “William Bradford Whitehill Rand”, in Memorial Tributes: Volume 5, page 234

   Synonyms: roustabout

2. UScolloquialdatedA dirty or low-paid worker, a labourer; an ironworker in an ironworks or a steelworker in a steelworks.First known use 20th c.

   Synonyms: roustabout

3. UScolloquialSomeone with rough manners; a rowdy or uncouth person.First known use 19th c.

   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

present singular third person roughnecks · participle present roughnecking · participle past roughnecked · past roughnecked

1. To work as a laborer on an oil rig.

   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