Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The conduct of a larrikin.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Australia, New Zealand The behaviour of larrikins (hooligans); impertinent and disrespectful behaviour.
  • noun Australia Behaviour that is rebellious against and contemptuous of authority and convention.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From larrikin +‎ -ism.

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Examples

  • Grannie frequently showed marked displeasure regarding what she termed my larrikinism, but never before had I seen her so thoroughly angry.

    My Brilliant Career Miles Franklin 1916

  • The subject is out of keeping with these letters, but unless some means can be found to reconcile colonial girls to service, I fear an evil is growing up in our midst which is likely to be even more baneful in its effects upon the community than the corresponding tendency to 'larrikinism' amongst colonial youths.

    Town Life in Australia Richard Ernest Nowell Twopeny 1886

  • The recruit is unfamiliar with the Australian accent; a situation that the player may well be in, Bishop's response affirms the Australian identity within the players mindset (attaching it to the obvious larrikinism which is present) while the coarse, aggressive tone and quick, off-the-mark reply works to show that he is also passionate about that identity, and refuses to be confused with other cultural identities.

    GameSetWatch 2009

  • It's time to checkmate this illiterate bottom-feeder and show him that if you've read any of the refractory slop that he has concocted, you'll unmistakably recall his description of his plan to bring about a wonderland of larrikinism.

    White Mob Disrupts Black Meeting Nathaniel Livingston 2005

  • I would have thrashed him well at the start but for the letters I constantly received from home warning me against offence to the parents, and knew that to set my foot on the children's larrikinism would require measures that would gain their mother's ill-will at once.

    My Brilliant Career Miles Franklin 1916

  • They were unanimous in stating that, "in their opinion, the behaviour of the youths who were subjected to the training had vastly improved, and that the principal effects of a beneficial nature were increased self-respect, diminution of juvenile cigarette smoking, 'larrikinism,' and generally a tendency towards a sense of responsibility and a desire to become good citizens."

    The Chronicles of a Gay Gordon 1892

  • On the prevalence of larrikinism I wrote at length in a former epistle.

    Town Life in Australia Richard Ernest Nowell Twopeny 1886

  • In many respects, as, I have elsewhere intimated, our free political system makes the social outlook here far more promising than in Europe; but larrikinism is a peculiar danger already well above the horizon, against which we seem powerless to deal.

    Town Life in Australia Richard Ernest Nowell Twopeny 1886

  • In Adelaide middle-class respectability is too strong for larrikinism, and imparts a far healthier social and moral tone than obtains in either Melbourne or

    Town Life in Australia Richard Ernest Nowell Twopeny 1886

  • Ill-discipline and insubordination were the flipside of the famous mateship, larrikinism and independence of spirit that is celebrated in Anzac mythology.

    The Sydney Morning Herald News Headlines 2010

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