thug

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A cutthroat or ruffian; a hoodlum.
2. n. One of a band of professional assassins formerly active in northern India who worshiped Kali and offered their victims to her.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A member of a confraternity of professional assassins and robbers formerly infesting India, chiefly in the central and northern provinces. The thugs roamed about the country in bands of from 10 to 100, usually in the disguise of peddlers or pilgrims, gaining the confidence of other travelers, whom they strangled, when a favorable opportunity presented itself, with a handkerchief, an unwound turban, or a noosed cord. The shedding of blood was seldom resorted to. The motive of the thugs was not so much lust of plunder as a certain religious fanaticism. The bodies of their victims were hidden in graves dug with a consecrated pickax, and of their spoil one third was devoted to the goddess Kali, whom they worshiped. About 1830–35 the British government took vigorous measures for their suppression, and thuggery, as an organized system, is now extinct.
2. n. Hence A cutthroat; a ruffian; a rough.

Wiktionary

1. n. A criminal with intimidating mannerisms, who treats others violently and roughly, especially for hire.
2. n. dated One of a band of assassins formerly active in northern India who worshipped Kali and offered their victims to her.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One of an association of robbers and murderers in India who practiced murder by stealthy approaches, and from religious motives. They have been nearly exterminated by the British government.
2. n. An assassin; a ruffian; a rough.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an aggressive and violent young criminal