rogue
- a dishonest, knavish person; scoundrel.
- a playfully mischievous person; scamp: The youngest boys are little rogues.
- a tramp or vagabond.
- a rogue elephant or other animal of similar disposition.
- Biology. a usually inferior organism, especially a plant, varying markedly from the normal.
- to live or act as a rogue.
- to cheat.
- to uproot or destroy (plants, etc., that do not conform to a desired standard).
- to perform this operation upon: to rogue a field.
- (of an animal) having an abnormally savage or unpredictable disposition, as a rogue elephant.
- no longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable; renegade: a rogue cop; a rogue union local.
Origin of rogue
Synonyms for rogue
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comRelated Words for rogue
crook, swindler, rascal, villain, miscreant, cheat, monstrosity, devil, criminal, scoundrel, reprobate, mischief, hooligan, scalawag, blackguard, fraud, trickster, outlaw, cheater, scampExamples from the Web for rogue
Contemporary Examples of rogue
Closed courthouses, rogue clerks, and misleading statements from the attorney general as Florida welcomes same-sex marriage.
The Back Alley, Low Blow-Ridden Fight to Stop Gay Marriage in Florida Is Finally OverJay Michaelson
January 5, 2015
The duo have five of these rogue installations under their belts, with another coming in early 2015.
It invites dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans serving overseas as bargaining chips.
Once he graduated in 2006, Simien took a job as a publicity assistant at Rogue, then a division of Focus Features.
‘Dear White People’: How An Ex-Publicist’s Twitter Became One of the Year’s Most Important FilmsMarlow Stern
October 30, 2014
History has no shortage of rogue explorers seizing land, hoisting their flags, and building new societies.
Historical Examples of rogue
There never was a rogue, who had not a salvo to himself for being so.
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
We were much provoked at the insult of playing the Rogue's March.
Ned MyersJames Fenimore Cooper
And all that's in it for me is this—the schoolmaster was a rogue that did not give me that verse in for my money.
Tales And Novels, Volume 8 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
Where has your conscience been these two months back, you villain and rogue?
Micah ClarkeArthur Conan Doyle
There was not a rogue or a rascal inside its whole precincts.
BunyanJames Anthony Froude
rogue
- a dishonest or unprincipled person, esp a man; rascal; scoundrel
- often jocular a mischievous or wayward person, often a child; scamp
- a crop plant which is inferior, diseased, or of a different, unwanted variety
- any inferior or defective specimen
- (as modifier)rogue heroin
- archaic a vagrant
- an animal of vicious character that has separated from the main herd and leads a solitary life
- (as modifier)a rogue elephant
- (tr)to rid (a field or crop) of plants that are inferior, diseased, or of an unwanted variety
- to identify and remove such plants
Word Origin for rogue
Word Origin and History for rogue
1560s, "idle vagrant," perhaps a shortened form of roger (with a hard -g-), thieves' slang for a begging vagabond who pretends to be a poor scholar from Oxford or Cambridge, which is perhaps an agent noun in English from Latin rogare "to ask." Another theory [Klein] traces it to Celtic (cf. Breton rog "haughty"); OED says, "There is no evidence of connexion with F. rogue 'arrogant.' "
In playful or affectionate use, "one who is mischievous," 1590s. Meaning "large wild beast living apart from the herd" is from 1859, originally of elephants. Meaning "something uncontrolled or undisciplined" is from 1964. Also common in 17c. as a verb. Rogue's gallery "police collection of mug shots" is attested from 1859.