How to Use roughneck in a Sentence

roughneck

noun
Definition of roughnecknext
Synonyms for roughnecknext
  • Later, Dollens worked as a roughneck in the oil fields.
    — Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 4 June 2017
  • There are fewer roughnecks, as my old landlord had warned, to trash the place.
    — Longreads, 23 Apr. 2018
  • Booms are great for those riding them, like roughnecks and tech workers.
    — Kate Galbraith, SFChronicle.com, 7 Aug. 2019
  • Does a roughneck working on an oil rig need to be instructed to wear steel-toe boots?
    — WSJ, 7 Mar. 2023
  • Somebody’s oil worker boyfriend might trash the place; indeed, the last round of roughnecks already have.
    — Longreads, 23 Apr. 2018
  • During the down period, Foster worked as a roughneck and learned to be a welder and fix his own tractor.
    — Tyler Bridges, NOLA.com, 4 Oct. 2020
  • The front portion was a roughneck men’s bar, and the back was a small late-night lounge that catered seemingly exclusively to women.
    — Maggie Menderski, The Courier-Journal, 24 June 2021
  • Another was a hat made of Bakelite, an early form of plastic that stood up to the rigors of roughneck labor.
    — David Kindy, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 Feb. 2020
  • The gamble City leaders see their town’s history as a bankable asset, a way to bring people and their dollars back to the city — not roughnecks, but tourists.
    — Randy Diamond, San Antonio Express-News, 7 Feb. 2020
  • Matt Damon stars as the Oklahoman, a goateed, denim-wearing roughneck named Bill with a sad past.
    — Mark Kennedy, Detroit Free Press, 30 July 2021
  • As prices tumbled, roughnecks, truck divers and engineers quickly lost their jobs.
    — Fortune, 14 Apr. 2020
  • Like many cities at this time, Baltimore had its share of roughnecks, pick pockets, petty thieves, charlatans and card sharks.
    — John Wilmerding, WSJ, 28 Sep. 2018
  • Young Texans can no longer get by as oil-field roughnecks and farmhands, many here say, and schools must start to train them for jobs in newer technological industries.
    — Maggie Astor, New York Times, 6 Aug. 2017
  • It’s set in Granite City, an everyday dystopia where Stallone lugs his body around with a reluctant roughneck shamble.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 25 Aug. 2022
  • His loathing of Rose and Peter seems to spring from something deeper and more vindictive than standard roughneck ignorance.
    — Los Angeles Times, 16 Nov. 2021
  • When the reverend's rebellious daughter sets her sights on Ren, her roughneck boyfriend tries to sabotage Ren's reputation, with many of the locals eager to believe the worst about the new kid.
    — Shirley MacFarland, cleveland.com, 13 Oct. 2017
  • After all, one of the things that typified a lot of Willis’ earlier career was his ability to play trash with conviction, like his turn as the roughneck who saves the world in Michael Bay’s Armageddon.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 30 Mar. 2022
  • Dawayne Tipton, 41, is a Killeen oil engineer who has worked as a roughneck, on offshore rigs and as an inspector of oil facilities for the private sector.
    — Dallas News, 15 Feb. 2022
  • Cox would work his way up from a roustabout and roughneck to eventually leading an oil and gas company as well as other notable businesses.
    — Dallas News, 7 Nov. 2020
  • As the roughneck in love with Harry's frisky daughter, Ben Affleck flexes resolute muscle with his heady performance.
    — Duane Byrge, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 July 2019
  • Armageddon—the 1998 movie, not the mythical battlefield—told the story of an asteroid headed straight for Earth, and a bunch of swaggering roughnecks sent in space shuttles to blow it up with a nuclear weapon.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 23 Sep. 2022
  • Stallone plays John Spartan, a roughneck cop brought out of his cryo-freeze prison to pursue an old ultra-violent nemesis (Wesley Snipes) who is loose in a non-violent future society.
    — Ben Flanagan | Bflanagan@al.com, al, 6 July 2021
  • Canvas magic Michael Perry could be described as a roughneck Garrison Keillor.
    — John Bordsen, chicagotribune.com, 9 May 2017
  • Three years later, the hill and 2 square miles of the surrounding plains incorporated as the city of Signal Hill, a settlement of roughnecks and wildcatters, an oil boomtown during the time when California produced a quarter of the world’s oil.
    — Scott Garner, latimes.com, 22 June 2018
  • Embracing a brutal brand of football under the rebellious owner Al Davis, the team played as if doling out injuries to opponents bestowed actual points on the scoreboard, and the players were every bit as roughneck off the field.
    — Alex Williams, New York Times, 3 Nov. 2022
  • Pruett said Elevation Resources recently had a fracking job that was supposed to take seven days but lasted nine because unschooled roughnecks caused some equipment malfunctions.
    — Dan Murtaugh, Bloomberg.com, 25 Sep. 2017
  • Car enthusiasts know there’s a lot more to the story of how a one-time oil roughneck and failed chicken farmer became one of the most successful race-car drivers in history, eventually creating some of the most iconic autos in American history.
    — Freep.com, 17 Apr. 2020
  • Until recently, the energy industry was mostly associated with roughnecks, gushing greasy dirty oil, and centralized electricity distribution systems.
    — Tsvetana Paraskova, USA TODAY, 16 Oct. 2017
  • Later, Dollens worked as a roughneck in the oil fields.
    — Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 4 June 2017
  • There are fewer roughnecks, as my old landlord had warned, to trash the place.
    — Longreads, 23 Apr. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'roughneck.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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