rube
noun
an unsophisticated person from a rural area; hick.
rube
1 American
[roob]
/ rub /
noun
Informal.
-
rubes
plural
Rube
2
American
[roob]
/ rub /
noun
rube
British
/ ruːb /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of rube
1895–1900; generic use of Rube; compare earlier use of Reuben in same sense
Explanation
Rube is an insulting word for a person considered uneducated or uncultured. Your average country bumpkin is also a rube. Calling someone a rube is another way of saying, "You sound like an idiot and you don't know what you're talking about." This word implies a lack of sophistication, manners, education, and culture. Rubes are usually from rural areas, and they’re also known as bumpkins, hayseeds, hicks, yahoos, yokels, and hillbillies. This is an insulting word, so use it cautiously — though it's probably fine to use it jokingly with your friends.
Vocabulary lists containing rube
Inherit the Wind
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Jonathan Demme (1944-2017) Tribute List
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Water for Elephants
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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:
I was correct, I guess; here I am, being paid to write about feeling like a rube.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
In this adaptation, Anna Bowden had been Cady’s defense attorney, and he’s no longer an illiterate rube but a successful restaurateur who was convicted of murdering his wife and unborn son.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
Old meaning of hick: hayseed, rube, ill-educated person.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
If you have been investing since your 20s, you’re hardly a rube where your portfolio is concerned.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 12, 2026
You was born and brung up in this rube burg called New York and the best you could do in thirty-five years was to get yourself foreman of a baseball team!
From Alex the Great by Arthur William Brown
The pair devised an instrument they called Tonto, a 12-foot-long collection of synthesizer modules connected by cables—“the finest of Rube Goldberg machines.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
This, of course, is an example of a Rube Goldberg machine—an overly complex mechanism that performs a simple task.
From Barron's ● May 14, 2026
That frenzy to create a "mini-primary" or some kind of Rube Goldberg mechanism to pick a candidate was largely based on that knee-jerk opinion.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2024
When ARID1A is mutated, a microscopic chain of events analogous to a Rube Goldberg machine is set off in the cancer cell.
From Science Daily ● May 15, 2024
Jessie had built the water wall along the eastern facade of the brownstone, inspired by a science class during which her teacher showed them different cartoons of Rube Goldberg machines.
From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser
But even these three rubes can tell Hao is hawking baloney.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
It’s weird to be paranoid or to feign paranoia as part of an elaborate performance to manipulate rubes.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2025
His denouement arrives when he accidentally tells his audience over a hot mic that they’re a bunch of witless, contemptible rubes; they turn on him and his popularity evaporates.
From Salon ● Feb. 19, 2024
Zaslav knows there are plenty of rubes just like me probably willing to pay.
From The Verge ● Aug. 27, 2022
Once again, a new batch is mixed up with trough water and set out moments before the rubes descend.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
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.
