Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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noun
A gangster; a hired thug.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: criminal, crook, committer, culprit, delinquent, desperado, double-dealer, felon, hoodlum, lawbreaker, lowlife, malefactor, malfeasant, offender, outlaw, perpetrator, public enemy, scofflaw, undesirable
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A rough or violent youth.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: agitator, bad boy, bad news, bear, beggar, bhoy, blackguard, booger, boot boy, bovver boy, brat, brawler, breedbate, buffoon, bugger, bully, charva, cutup, devil, elf, enfant terrible, firebrand, gadfly, hell-raiser, hood, hoodlum, hool, hoolie, hooligan, hothead, imp, inciter, initiator, instigator, jackanapes, joker, jokester, kindle-coal, kindle-fire, knave, lout, makebate, minx, mischief, mischief-maker, miscreant, ne'er-do-well, pixie, pot stirrer, practical joker, prankster, puck, punk, rabble rouser, rakeshame, rantipole, rapscallion, rascal, rogue, roly-poly, rowdy, ruffian, scamp, scapegrace, scoundrel, shit disturber, shitmonger, shit-stirrer, tearaway, thug, titivil, tough, troublemaker, undesirable, vandal, wag, wagpastie, wrangler, yob, yobbo
Antonyms: none provided
noun
an aggressive and violent young criminal
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: hood, goon, punk, thug, tough, toughie, strong-armer
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: criminal, felon, crook, outlaw, malefactor
Narrower terms: bully
History
First attested in a December 1866 Daily Alta California article, which mentions "the 'Hoodlum Gang' of juvenile thieves". Several possible origins have been proposed. It may derive from a Germanic word like Swabian hudelum (“disorderly”) or Bavarian Haderlump (“ragamuffin”). Herbert Asbury's book The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld (1933, A. A. Knopf, New York) says the word originated in San Francisco from a particular street gang's call to unemployed Irishmen to "huddle 'em" (to beat up Chinese migrants), after which San Francisco newspapers took to calling street gangs "hoodlums".
Across languages
55 source translations are retained for this English entry.
