Fuelling all this is the growing use of methamphetamines-primarily crystal meth, the roughneck's drug of choice.
With this the roughneck car driver gave me the first real tongue-lashing of my life.
British Dictionary definitions for roughneck
roughneck
/ˈrʌfˌnɛk/
noun (slang)
1.
a rough or violent person; thug
2.
a worker in an oil-drilling operation
Word Origin and History for roughneck
n.
also rough-neck, 1836, "rugged individual," from rough (adj.) + neck (n.). Original context is the Texas frontier, later adpoted to labor organization toughs. Specific sense of "oil rig worker" is recorded from 1917. Cf. redneck.
Slang definitions & phrases for roughneck
roughneck
noun
A thug and brawler; plug-ugly, tough: The so-called roughneck is hit with everything(1836+)
A worker or laborer, esp in a circus or on an oil-drilling rig (1917+)