gangster

[ gang-ster ]

noun

1. a member of a gang of criminals, especially a racketeer in an organized crime syndicate.

   Synonyms: goon, hood, thug, crook, hoodlum, mobster

gangster

/ ˈɡæŋstə /

noun

1. a member of an organized gang of criminals, esp one who resorts to violence

Word History and Origins

Origin of gangster¹

An Americanism dating back to 1895–1900; gang ¹ + -ster

Example Sentences

Take away the gas in the gas station, and the gangsters have nothing to run their gang.

From Time

When the group officially launched in June 2013, however, it was with a hard style paying homage to old-school gangster rap.

From Vox

Robert De Niro directs and doesn’t play a gangster in this one, which, though it has plenty of Hollywood sheen, is drawn from Chazz Palminteri’s real life.

From Ozy

He didn’t want to hear any more victims sobbing and grieving or be around any more gangsters, killers, sociopaths and lunatics.

From Washington Post

Lewis’s death became a national news story, with headlines proclaiming that Chicago was back to its old gangster ways — the kind of bad press that made Daley irate.

From ProPublica

In the neighborhoods they grow up in, prison is a rite of passage and being a street gangster is a viable career choice.

From The Daily Beast

Are the guys from Vanity Fair and Time battling it out and trying to get gangster with each other?

From The Daily Beast

He was a shy art student who assumed a role as this hell-raising gangster rapper, and then got caught up in it.

From The Daily Beast

What Nucky Johnson was not was a gangster, though he did go to prison for a short stint, like Al Capone, for tax evasion.

From The Daily Beast

Altaf Hussain has lived in exile in London since he fled Pakistan in 1991 as a wanted gangster.

From The Daily Beast

The young visitor readily concurred in the plan, he wanted to see the house that the gangster had built anyhow.

From Project Gutenberg

Him, a big, strong man that had made a gangster eat his gun and ordered the judge and sheriff what to do!

From Project Gutenberg

He slipped into position on one side of the gangster, Ginsburg on the other.

From Project Gutenberg

"I thought so," he said, choosing to ignore the gangster and addressing Casane.

From Project Gutenberg

Oh, knock it off—where do you get that pirate bit, gangster?

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• bandit
• criminal
• crook
• hoodlum
• hooligan
• mobster
• racketeer
• robber
• soldier
• thug