Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US black) to steal; to rob.

1821		D. Haggart Autobiog. 66: She immediately raised the down that the swag was rousted.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 14: Even if they rousted that van, for sure weren’t them in it.
1999		J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] ‘Fuck knows what he was after. Could be he was a tief man come to roust us’.

2. (US Und.) to jostle, as in picking a pocket.

1886		A. Pinkerton Thirty Years a Detective 41: The ‘tool,’ when he has the wallet in his fingers and ready to be drawn out, will cry ‘Rouse!’ [sic] At this signal all of the ‘stalls’ give the man a general push at the same time, and, during the confusion [...] the ‘tool’ deftly pulls out the wallet.
1904		‘Number 1500’ Life In Sing Sing 259: Rousting a goose for his poke. Jostling a Hebrew so that the pickpocket may steal his purse.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 71: roust [...] To jam against a victim in a violent manner; to squeeze a victim between two pickpocket assistants in a way to distract his attention.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 161: Roust. – To crowd against a person or push into a crowd as on a street car or other public conveyance to permit the picking of pockets in the confusion.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 816: roust – To crowd against a person or push into a crowd to permit the picking of a pocket in the confusion.

3. (US) to harass, esp. of the police.

1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 July 47/2: Oh, rats! I’m not goin’ ter be rousted on be th’ likes o’ you!
1939		V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 97: Instead of rousting me for being insolent, he goes a bit closer to the railings.
1949		W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 124: You say the police [...] are rousting around and making their arrest records from the unsyndicated [...] prostitutes.
1958		E. Gilbert Vice Trap 153: When the guard came down to roust us, I would be playing sick over the sink.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 159: I’m not in the business of rousting whores.
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 193: One of the detectives who had rousted him the night of the murder.
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 151: And, hey, good work rousting those dopers!
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 74: After the rousting at the Canberra Oriental [we] walked up to the Spaghetti Bar.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 81: They’re actually rousting some younger crew on Vine.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 329: If you saw me parked there [...] and you read me as drunk, why didn’t you stop and roust me?
2014		M.E. Fitch ‘Tommy, Who Loved to Laugh’ in ThugLit Sept. [ebook] ‘The cops are rousting my people at the kitchen and I'm sick of it’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 82: I contemplated rousting Paul de River. His sex-crime book.

4. to awaken.

1949		W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 244: If he’s in bed, roust him out.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 1: Three days of . . . getting rousted awake at 3:30 a.m.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 111: If a cop spots us rousting him, he’ll swear we’re jackrolling and run us in.

5. to raid an establishment.

1960, 1975

Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

6. (US) to beat up.

1952

H. McCoy Corruption City 92: If you were going to roust me around you would have done it a long time ago.

7. (US) to search out, to hunt down.

1952

W.R. Burnett Vanity Row 19: ‘Where you guys been—catting? The Chief’s been rousting Lackey all over the place. This is a real big one’.

8. to arrest; thus rousting adj.

1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 36: It would be a hectic cat-and-mouse game with the cruising, rousting vice squad.
1984		J. Ellroy Because the Night 106: ‘Some innocent men are going to be rousted, but that's unavoidable’.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 9: He’s rousting vags.
1996		Steve Earle ‘Billy and Bonnie’ 🎵 The state police rousted Billy out.
2000		N. Barlay Crumple Zone 13: The first time he got arrested, rousted one rainy dawn on Moss Side with a roomful of bootlegs.
2012		T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 57: [He] rousted my father and uncles and Collie, trying to pick up information.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 201: Rousted at the Saints and Sinners Drag Ball.

9. (US campus) to tease, to harass.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U.

10. to dismiss from employment.

2009

T. Black Gutted 86: The man who wants to bust my balls, for a murder I didn’t commit, is roused off the case.