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:
On a rowdy New York night, Benjamin Bonzi had match point for a straight-set win against Medvedev in the first round when a photographer inexplicably walked on to court between his first and second serves.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
This “5×5 continuum” includes the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses and Oasis—boozy, rowdy bands that in some cases struggled to outdo the standards set by their early albums.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
On YouTube, the very same platform hosting Duffy’s vapid post-vacation slideshow, content abounds showing soccer lovers’ appreciation for our fast-food joints, rowdy dance clubs and ranch dressing.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
That his rowdy co-workers think he sucks at it is worse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
The boys dove into the rowdy throng of the entertainment district.
From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat
Still, the notion that public exposure of their antics will somehow steer these rich young rowdies toward responsibility and respect feels quixotic, given that public exposure is the air they breathe.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2021
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
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
The happy band of Muppets on "Sesame Street" has faced the sort of hot spotlight you might expect for the rowdies of "Jersey Shore."
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 14, 2012
“I can’t imagine how you decided to besmirch the movement by inviting those rowdies here.”
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
But there was far less focus on the even rowdier world of “dating” shows aimed at young men.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2025
South by Southwest has carved out a specific niche for itself on the festival circuit, a little rowdier and more spirited than the likes of Sundance or Cannes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2025
Sarah-Mae: After watching “Eras” at 6 p.m. with an audience largely made up of middle schoolers, we opted for an 8 p.m. showing at the U-District AMC, thinking it might draw a rowdier crowd.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 4, 2023
The new Chloe Moriondo album, “Suckerpunch,” is jubilantly chaotic — the production leans much further into hyperpop muscle than her previous work, and her songwriting is rowdier and looser.
From New York Times ● Oct. 7, 2022
He keeps the rowdier kids in line by standing up and glaring.
From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh
Nebraska’s arena has become one of the rowdiest barns in the Big Ten.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
One of the rowdiest young showmen in rap, Houston’s new champion delivers rough-and-tumble Tejano tales with the sweaty panache of Bun B and Paul Wall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2024
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 good-vibes-only affair alternately felt like a living room jam session at the rowdiest of house parties and a beach bonfire singalong with tens of thousands of strangers turned best buds.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2022
Dr. Johnson’s simple question gets to the heart of a basic and uncomfortable fact: some of the rowdiest cries for America’s freedom came from the Founding Fathers, heroes in the American quest for liberty.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
