Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A gangster; a thug.
- n. A tough, often aggressive or violent youth.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A young hectoring street rowdy; one of a gang of ruffians; a lounging, good-for-nothing, quarrelsome fellow; a rough.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Colloq. U.S. A young rowdy; a rough, lawless fellow; colloquially, called also
hood .
WordNet 3.0
- n. an aggressive and violent young criminal
Etymologies
- Attested since 1871. Many sources have been proposed, but none are certain. The Online Etymology Dictionary suggests that it may derive from Bavarian German Haddalump ("ragamuffin"). (Wiktionary)
- Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“They have Edward looking like a hoodlum from the fifties or something.”
“Just because a POS hoodlum is "hunting" doesn't make him or her an ethical sportsman that I want to stick together with.”
“While Robin Hood has been romanticized in the movies and books, where do you think the word hoodlum came from?”
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“May Sandel, another senior, readily acknowledges that she would've become a "hoodlum," as she puts it, had she not found this school.”
The Huffington Post: Remote Island School A Beacon For Wayward Teens
“The only people who use the word "hoodlum" these days are media pundits & talk radio hosts, like Beck or Limbaugh, to disparage young black/latino males.”
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“He eventually evolved into what had to be the most self-righteous, straight-laced "hoodlum" prime time ever saw.”
“The word is very popular in Romanian and one Romanian dictionary I saw translates the English words "hoodlum" and "teddy-boy" as huligan plural huligani; def. article huliganii.”
“They encourage the "hoodlum," and so far as they have any influence, give an implied sanction to much unrighteous legislation.”
“Hector knew already that a "hoodlum" in San Francisco parlance is a term applied to street loafers from fifteen to twenty-five years of age, who are disinclined to work and have a premature experience of vice.”
“The law, branded by some activists as the "hoodlum" law, would increase the penalty for obstructing police to 40 days in jail.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hoodlum’.
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Bad Options
words for those who commit particular crimes: i.e., bank robber, arsonist, etc.
liar, cheat, traitor, arsonist, felon, braggard, thief, profiteer, impostor, phony, fraud, culprit and 212 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Perponyms
List of words referent to persons who commit specific crimes, or are suspected of committing those crimes, beginning with arsonist and safecracker.
Check out reesetee's nice Bad Guys l...arsonist, safecracker, murderer, rapist, getaway man, jewel thief, accomplice, drug dealer, carjacker, gunrunner, industrial spy, human trafficker and 216 more...
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Unsavory characters
absconder, aretaloger, arriviste, avaunter, bamboozler, bandit, banger, barbarian, barmecide, barrator, beldam, blatherskite and 190 more...
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scoundrels and bastards
already several of these lists, but I wanted my own
varlet, scoundrel, ne'er-do-well, cad, thug, churl, boor, hooligan, bastard, slubberdegullion, dastard, tosspot and 85 more...
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people (bad)
nouns for bad people / words that describe bad people.
goto the good people list
( people, character, descriptor, noun )culprit, perpetrator, tormentor, swindler, bamboozler, nincompoop, thief, liar, back stabber, vandal, burglar, cheater and 85 more...
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Hoods
Inspired by comments over on muffinhood.
muffinhood, Robin Hood, maidenhood, knighthood, neighborhood, thiefhood, monkshood, childhood, manhood, little red riding..., falsehood, fatherhood and 71 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. II
cicurate, circumforaneous, codger, comiconomenclaturist, constable, contradistinction, contraindicated, counterpane, coxcomb, decalcomania, decanal, decoction and 307 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
-Lum Words
Hoodlum has a mysterious 1871 San Francisco origin. Maybe it's neighborhood + diminutive -lum as in molecule, funicular, humunculus, etc. But no! The OED only records 'hood as a shortening of neigh...
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kmalladi's favorites
edification, penchant, ablution, extricate, frank, triumvirate, trifecta, egregious, hoi polloi, articulate, antediluvian, brusque and 291 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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I'm not "over thinking things" - you'...
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cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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grassdog's Words
schadenfreude, sanguine, nefarious, verisimilitude, antediluvian, salacious, obfuscate, plethora, cacophony, defenestration, vacillate, blasphemy and 478 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hoodlum.
sonofgroucho Interesting! Mar 9, 2009
sionnach hoodlum started as the name of a gang leader, Muldoon. A reporter reversed it to Noodlum, but the typesetter misread the reporter's handwriting and put it in the paper as "hoodlum". Apr 11, 2008