mobster
Americannoun
-
mobsters
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
Wednesday in the Oval Office was so off-the-wall bad I thought I was watching a B-movie about a minor mobster.
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2026
In 2018, the Senate said mobster criminality and political inaction had caused an ecological disaster in the region.
From Barron's ● May 23, 2026
Sylvester Stallone as an “over-the-hill goombah” who brings East Coast mobster methods to a heartland city?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
“Lilyhammer,” another favorite and the first “exclusive” Netflix series, found Steven Van Zandt as an American mobster in witness protection in a Norwegian small town; there was a ton of snow in that show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2025
In return for a favor to some white mobster, my new boss and his wife had just been given a six- months numbers banking privilege for the Bronx railroad area called Motthaven Yards.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
Rocky Balboa is a stumblebum club fighter making $65 a fight and working on the side as collection man for small-time mobsters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
But Morano, the councilman, is adamant that "this is not just a place that should be known for landfills and mobsters."
From Barron's ● Feb. 13, 2026
After McCarthy was discredited, Roy Cohn came back to New York and he acquired all kinds of clients; mobsters, nightclub owners, businessmen.
From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2024
Such gags are rare, except of course in trials of boorish mobsters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2024
As a young woman, she had played a key role in code breaking during World War I. She later cracked the codes of American mobsters, smashing their crime gangs.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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.
