an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
1658, probably an alteration of rouse. Roustabout "deck hand, wharf worker" is from 1868, perhaps from roust + about, but another theory connects it to Brit. dial. rousing "rough, shaggy," a word associated perhaps with rooster.
tv. [for a police officer] to bother or interfere with someone; to arrest someone. (See also rousted. Underworld.) : The cops rousted the gang without warning.
tv. to raid someone's residence; to busta person or place. (Underworld.) : That bar was rousted last week.
n. a raid or a bust. : Okay, stand still. This is a roust!
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition. Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source