rube
noun
an unsophisticated person from a rural area; hick.
rube
1 American
[roob]
/ rub /
noun
Informal.
Rube
2
American
[roob]
/ rub /
noun
rube
British
/ ruːb /
noun
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.
In Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America,” Roy M. Cohn, trying to assuage an angry client he can’t get off the phone, offers theater tickets to a show he knows that this annoying rube will like.
From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 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
Come for the Rube Goldberg machines, leave feeling like a rube.
From Salon • Feb. 21, 2025
New York looked as cold and hard to me as it does to any rube that slinks in from the outlands, crazy with the desire to capture it.
From Alex the Great by Brown, Arthur William
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.
