rowdy
Americannoun
-
rowdies
plural
adjective
-
rowdier,
comparative
-
rowdiest
superlative
-
rough and disorderly.
rowdy behavior at school.
-
Slang. great; very enjoyable, often with boisterous fun.
a rowdy time at the arcade with my best friends.
- Synonyms:
- obstreperous, unruly, boisterous
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of rowdy
An Americanism dating back to 1810–20; perhaps from row 3
Explanation
If you’re rowdy, you’re loud and raucous. You’re disturbing the peace and somebody’s likely to ask you to quiet down. When your team wins, if you and your teammates celebrate by running through the streets screaming and wrestling each other on people’s lawns, you’re a rowdy bunch. You may be rough and obnoxious or just rowdy in a good-natured way. But you reserve the name rowdy for a cruel and brutal guy. Remember that bully in the seventh grade who kept taking your lunch money? He was a rowdy.
Vocabulary lists containing rowdy
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
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Schooled
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Frindle
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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:
That his rowdy co-workers think he sucks at it is worse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
To survive, it’s trying a rowdy, adults-only solution.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2026
Edwards declared she loved Scottish crowds for being rowdy, as fans serenaded her with chants of "no Scotland no party" on the main stage.
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026
Getting bodies in the room is also valuable as the hearings sometimes get rowdy.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
Like a teacher who takes over a rowdy class, he sought to discipline the student he regarded as the principal troublemaker.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Reid, once a season ticket holder, is not one of the rowdies, and he feels the perception is overblown.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 7, 2021
To get out of trouble, a hotshot lawyer opts for community service coaching rowdies in peewee hockey.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2020
The other idols of those prelapsarian Mets, the rowdies who won it all in ’86, remain staples of New York media, their successes lionized and their sins reconstrued as locker-room foibles.
From Slate ● Jan. 12, 2020
Past "Fast and Furious" rowdies such as Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and Sung Kang join Diesel and company for an "Ocean's Eleven"-style heist romp.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 27, 2011
The car of rowdies hoot and holler their approval.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
He also warned the US hosts about the rowdier aspects of football support.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
But there was far less focus on the even rowdier world of “dating” shows aimed at young men.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2025
“Touch of Grey” introduced a new generation of fans to the Grateful Dead, many much rowdier than the Deadheads who had followed the group through the years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2024
Vance told the crowd, declaring himself “the last thing standing” between them and a rowdier party, “what can you even say after a night like tonight?”
From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2022
The men are getting rowdier; more than half are on their feet.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
Nebraska’s arena has become one of the rowdiest barns in the Big Ten.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
Should the Marlins need a tip or two on how to win a postseason game in Philadelphia in front of one of the loudest, rowdiest atmospheres in baseball, they can just ask their manager.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 2, 2023
The two had a cordial interaction at Mr. Biden’s raucous State of the Union address, shaking hands and smiling at each other — at one point, the speaker appeared to shush the rowdiest members.
From New York Times ● Mar. 18, 2023
Running back Travis Dye, who twice played in Corvallis with Oregon, said he thought that it was “one of the rowdiest crowds Oregon State has ever come with.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2022
“The winter solstice and the two equinoxes. Midsummer Eve tends to be the rowdiest of them all.”
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
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.
