roughneck

English

Etymology

rough +‎ neck

Noun

roughneck (plural roughnecks)

  1. (colloquial, chiefly US) Someone with rough manners; a rowdy or uncouth person. [from 19th c.]
  2. (colloquial, chiefly US) An ironworker; a dirty or low-paid worker, a labourer. [from 20th c.]
  3. (colloquial, chiefly US) A labourer on an oil rig. [from 20th c.]
    • 2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster 2014, p. 286:
      As for the minerals, there has been a good deal of drilling along the big river; trucks and roughnecks no longer garner any notice.

See also

Verb

roughneck (third-person singular simple present roughnecks, present participle roughnecking, simple past and past participle roughnecked)

  1. To work as a laborer on an oil rig
    • 2009, January 13, “Michael Brick”, in Racing's Last Frontier‎:
      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 […]
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