rowdy
Americannoun
-
rowdies
plural
adjective
-
rowdier,
comparative
-
rowdiest
superlative
-
rough and disorderly.
rowdy behavior at school.
-
Slang. great; very enjoyable, often with boisterous fun.
a rowdy time at the arcade with my best friends.
- Synonyms:
- obstreperous, unruly, boisterous
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of rowdy
An Americanism dating back to 1810–20; perhaps from row 3
Explanation
If you’re rowdy, you’re loud and raucous. You’re disturbing the peace and somebody’s likely to ask you to quiet down. When your team wins, if you and your teammates celebrate by running through the streets screaming and wrestling each other on people’s lawns, you’re a rowdy bunch. You may be rough and obnoxious or just rowdy in a good-natured way. But you reserve the name rowdy for a cruel and brutal guy. Remember that bully in the seventh grade who kept taking your lunch money? He was a rowdy.
Vocabulary lists containing rowdy
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
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Schooled
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Frindle
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Usually the bar is a rowdy reprieve filled with sweaty bodies and pounding bass lines, with Lo situated behind the DJ decks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026
“They are not rowdy at all. They travel with the idea of understanding the culture, mingling with the locals, buying local arts and crafts,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
Baylors, who last went when she was 17, says it is "not as rowdy as people say it is, it's not like some battle zone or anything".
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
On YouTube, the very same platform hosting Duffy’s vapid post-vacation slideshow, content abounds showing soccer lovers’ appreciation for our fast-food joints, rowdy dance clubs and ranch dressing.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
This quiet, motionless adult was apparently more Otto’s speed than the rowdy nursery bonobos.
From "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer
On an August night in the same year, rowdies racing a big red car through downtown scattered pedestrians, and half a dozen policemen “tried in vain to stop it.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 8, 2022
The vast majority of fraternity members are not the drunk rowdies characterized by the movie “Animal House”; in fact, they are serious students and well-behaved gentlemen.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 29, 2021
The other idols of those prelapsarian Mets, the rowdies who won it all in ’86, remain staples of New York media, their successes lionized and their sins reconstrued as locker-room foibles.
From Slate ● Jan. 12, 2020
Past "Fast and Furious" rowdies such as Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and Sung Kang join Diesel and company for an "Ocean's Eleven"-style heist romp.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 27, 2011
I gathered up my skirts, pushed through Traft’s rowdies and hurried outside.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
He also warned the US hosts about the rowdier aspects of football support.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
But there was far less focus on the even rowdier world of “dating” shows aimed at young men.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2025
Sarah-Mae: After watching “Eras” at 6 p.m. with an audience largely made up of middle schoolers, we opted for an 8 p.m. showing at the U-District AMC, thinking it might draw a rowdier crowd.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 4, 2023
“There’s all the time in the world to partake in those activities during her rowdier, more up-tempo numbers but during her sacred ballads just shut up and listen,” a third commenter wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2023
They banged out the rhythm on the tables, getting louder and rowdier until Raul stilled them by raising his hands.
From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer
Nebraska’s arena has become one of the rowdiest barns in the Big Ten.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
One of the rowdiest young showmen in rap, Houston’s new champion delivers rough-and-tumble Tejano tales with the sweaty panache of Bun B and Paul Wall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2024
Should the Marlins need a tip or two on how to win a postseason game in Philadelphia in front of one of the loudest, rowdiest atmospheres in baseball, they can just ask their manager.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 2, 2023
A venue that was among the rowdiest in the nation more than a decade ago during the program’s Big East power years has had more of a library-like feel in recent years.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 17, 2023
“The study of language en' nobles the rowdiest beast.”
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
