ronin
Americannoun
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ronin,
plural
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ronins
plural
noun
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a lordless samurai, esp one whose feudal lord had been deprived of his territory
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such samurai collectively
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ronin
From the Japanese word rōnin literally, “wave man” (understood as “a man tossed around like a wave”)
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:
The biographical details may come from the author’s grandfather, but the character seems decidedly larger-than-life, a cross between Bruce Wayne, a Japanese ronin and an archetypal wandering Jew.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
They’re really postmodern samurai films, with Wick as a lone ronin facing an endless oncoming army, a notion that pulls so many facets of this unique star into one concentrated, irresistible figure.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 24, 2023
Thomas created the series while living and working in Japan, an experience that one guesses informs the way Nick Jones Jr. writes this ronin and certainly permeates Stanfield's portrayal.
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2021
Hector, the handsome outlaw, sees a ronin who acts suspiciously like him.
From Slate ● May 24, 2018
The forty-seven ronin were pronounced "righteous samurai" because they avenged the death of their lord, even though in doing so they committed deeds that, by themselves, would have been condemned.
From Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic by Sidney Lewis Gulick
Letters shall be despatched forthwith to the effect that 'twas a false alarm, bred of mischief and malice,--that the ronins may be disbanded, the men returned to their homes.
From The Curse of Koshiu A Chronicle of Old Japan by Lewis Wingfield
The attacking party consisted of fourteen ronins belonging to the Mito clan, who had banded themselves together to take vengeance on the “accursed foreigners.”
From Japan by David Murray
The Satsuma yashiki, which was occupied by troops of that clan and by ronins favorable to them was surrounded by Tokugawa troops and burnt.
From Japan by David Murray
It was an old feudal custom, whenever the retainers of a daimyō wished to avenge any act without committing their lord, they withdrew from his service and became ronins.
From Japan by David Murray
The affair of the forty-seven ronins helped to bring into eminence the name of Yamaga Soko, a firm believer in Confucianism and an ardent follower of military science.
From A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era by F. (Frank) Brinkley
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.
