mobster
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of mobster
1915–20, mob 1 (in the sense “a member of a criminal gang”)+ -ster
Explanation
A mobster is a bad guy who's involved in organized crime or belongs to a gang. There are many movies about mobsters that take place in the 1920s and 30s. As opposed to individual criminals, members of crime syndicates and gangs belong to a large, structured criminal organization. Someone who belongs to such a group is a mobster or a gangster. The term mobster comes from mob, another name for the Mafia, an Italian organized crime group. Originally mob meant just "a large group of people" or "the common people," from the Latin phrase mobile vulgus, "fickle common people."
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.
"It feels really nice, and life goes on," the ageing mobster told local media outside a Melbourne courthouse.
From Barron's • Feb. 5, 2026
As one former associate tells Springs Toledo about the Boston mobster: “I can’t talk about Joe. He wouldn’t want me to.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026
He frequently apologized for random artifacts strewn around — plaques, movie posters, a biography of mobster Mickey Cohen — or displays not lit to his liking.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 10, 2025
In Get Shorty, Hackman starred alongside Travolta, who plays a Miami mobster sent to collect a debt.
From BBC • Mar. 1, 2025
He wore a massive velour tracksuit with gold chains around his neck and greased-back hair, so he looked like a thirty-foot-tall mobster - if mobsters had dragon feet and burnt-orange skin.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
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.
