hoodlum
Americannoun
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hoodlums
plural
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a thug or gangster.
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a young street ruffian, especially one belonging to a gang.
noun
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a petty gangster or ruffian
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a lawless youth
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of hoodlum
1870–75, probably < dialectal German; compare Swabian derivatives of Hudel rag, e.g. hudelum disorderly, hudellam weak, slack Hudellump ( e ) rags, slovenly, careless person, and related words in other dialects
Explanation
Hoodlums are young people who are involved in crime or generally up to no good. A car full of hoodlums might drive down the street and smash mailboxes with a baseball bat. Hoodlums are into mean stuff like that. If you've ever seen a group of young people who look like trouble, you may have seen a group of hoodlums. Hoodlums are loud, aggressive, and violent. Hoodlums are part of gangs and commit crimes. If a young person robs a store or mugs someone, he’s a hoodlum. The word hoodlum has nothing to do with the hood on a sweatshirt. A hoodlum can also be called a gangster, thug, or toughie. Steer clear!
Vocabulary lists containing hoodlum
Number the Stars
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Novel Study: The Outsiders, Chapters 1–5
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All We Have Left
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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:
“He was absolutely beautiful, like a Botticelli cosh boy,” Mr. Lindsay-Hogg recalled, using an old British slang term for stylish teenage hoodlum.
From New York Times ● Jul. 5, 2022
In your film, a teacher once said that James would be either a hoodlum or a great entertainer.
From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2021
"He’s got an edge to him. He looks like a choir boy, but he plays like … a hoodlum," Van Gundy said.
From Fox News ● Jul. 8, 2021
And, pay careful attention to a rare appearance by legendary Stooge Shemp Howard as baby-renting hoodlum Wacky and the famed dance team Rene and Estela performing the rhumba.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 21, 2021
I’m a hoodlum from a bunch of nothing.
From "On the Come Up" by Angie Thomas
Northern Ireland Minister Conor Burns described those involved in the singing as "mindless hoodlums" and called for the police to investigate the matter.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2022
These coyotes are roving the streets in packs, like unrepentant hoodlums looking for a mark.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2022
The film’s high-water mark, shot with a spellbinding fluidity in a housing project, witnesses Yen’s balletic body jumping, swinging and careening through an entire neighborhood of hoodlums.
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2021
It was all sticks and spears and hoodlums scaling walls, castle-siege style.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2021
A pair of tsotsis, street hoodlums, listened politely.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
Definitions 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.
