rumbustious
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of rumbustious
1775–80; probably variant of robustious
Explanation
That kid who's had a little too much candy and is bouncing off the walls? Just call him rumbustious, an old word meaning noisy and undisciplined. If you want to talk about someone who is unruly or just plain out of control, it's good to use an unruly word. In easygoing American English, we might refer to a rambunctious child, but before rambunctious there was rumbustious. That playful adjective goes all the way back to the late 18th century and still occasionally gets hauled out for comic effect, though using rambunctious will get you fewer odd looks.
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.
The rumbustious pirate, now looking at 50, with salt sprinkled through his red beard, sounds oddly subdued.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
Like rumbustious Walt Whitman, “The Heart of American Poetry” is large and contains multitudes, being part “Song of Myself” and part July Fourth celebration.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 27, 2022
The rumbustious suffragettes are relegated to small etchings on the new statue’s plinth, a marginalisation that hints at lingering unease with their methods.
From Economist ● Apr. 19, 2018
We're getting hefty now and, after two number eights, my choice for number three is rumbustious Ireland prop Tadhg Furlong.
From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2017
The chief fault the superficial modern critic has to find with Dickens is a sort of rumbustious boisterousness in the expression of emotion.
From My Contemporaries In Fiction by David Christie Murray
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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.
