Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

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:

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

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

William Morrell makes his printed appearance as the new picaro.

From The Notorious Impostor and Diego Redivivus by Settle, Elkanah

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 Jusserand, J. J.

I say "go over" because the life of a philosopher and the life of a picaro is the same.

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

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 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 Rudder, Robert S.

The picaros of this dirty little town are as conceited as pigs.

From Romance by Conrad, Joseph

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 Rudder, Robert S.

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

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

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 12,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training