rousie

English

Etymology

From rous(eabout) +‎ -ie.

Noun

rousie (plural rousies)

  1. (Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) A rouseabout.
    • 1967, Graham Jenkin, Two Years on Bardunyah Station: Being an Account of the Experiences of a Jackaroo, Together with Some Poems, etc., Seacombe Heights, South Australia: Pitjantjara Publishers, page 66:
      The aim of the rouser is eventually to become a shearer via the medium of the learner’s pen, and in fact the rousie is really an apprentice shearer; but there is certainly a great gulf between the accomplished prince of the board and the miserable rouseabout in the strange new world of his first shed.
    • 1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Baton Rouge, La., London: Louisiana State University Press, published 1985, →ISBN:
      “[Y]ou ever try shearing sheep? Unwilling sheep?” “I’ve worked as rousie, never shearer, but I’ve seen them carry on.”
    • 2011, Fiona Palmer, Heart of Gold, Michael Joseph, →ISBN:
      Kate, their young rousie, threw the fleece up and over the table.
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