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picaro

American  
[pik-uh-roh, pee-kuh-] / ˈpɪk əˌroʊ, ˈpi kə- /

noun

  • picaros
    plural
  1. a rogue or vagabond.


Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of picaro

First recorded in 1615–25, picaro is from the Spanish word pícaro rogue


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:

Initially it seemed to be the first-person adventures of an intellectual picaro charting his disenchantment with Los Angeles, the Esalen Institute, M.I.T., think tanks and other outposts of American culture.

From Time Magazine Archive

His friend and foil is Rich Bone, a handsome and once successful corporate executive who sees life's flaws so clearly that he has retreated to become a sort of passive picaro.

From Time Magazine Archive

There is too Piers Plain, now a shepherd but formerly nothing short of a picaro, who has seen much and has followed many trades, and served many masters.

From The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare by J. J. Jusserand

Hull down an' under though he be, we'll nab yon picaro, with his jolly treasure.

From Blackbeard: Buccaneer by Frank Earle Schoonover

Nares quotes several instances of "picaro" and "picaroon" from our early writers.

From A Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 2 by A. H. (Arthur Henry) Bullen

In 1947, upon Gertrude Stein’s suggestion, Paul settled in Tangier, a seedy port city where artists, pirates, picaros, philistines, homosexuals, lapsed aristocrats, real aristocrats, and paupers posing as kings had found refuge for centuries.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 13, 2014

Philosophers threw their goods into the sea; picaros throw them in their stomachs.

From The Life of Lazarillo of Tormes; his fortunes and misfortunes as told by himself by Robert S. Rudder

The only difference is that philosophers gave up all they had for their love of that kind of life, and picaros find it without giving up anything.

From The Life of Lazarillo of Tormes; his fortunes and misfortunes as told by himself by Robert S. Rudder

Philosophers abandoned their estates to contemplate natural and divine things, the movements of the heavens, with less distraction; picaros do it to sow all their wild oats.

From The Life of Lazarillo of Tormes; his fortunes and misfortunes as told by himself by Robert S. Rudder

Then it must have proceeded from one of the picaros behind the rock.

From The War Trail The Hunt of the Wild Horse by Mayne Reid

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