thug
a violent, lawless, or vicious person, especially one who commits a crime such as assault, robbery, or murder: It wasn't uncommon for hired thugs to intimidate shop owners until they paid up.
(sometimes initial capital letter) one of a former group of professional robbers and murderers in India who strangled their victims.
Origin of thug
1usage note For thug
In American English, the word is disproportionately applied to nonwhite perpetrators of violence or crime. White teens disturbing the peace at a party with loud music are more likely to be called troublemakers or hooligans. Their Black peers are more likely to be labeled thugs for the same offense. And following this common racialized usage, thug is used by some and interpreted by many as a code word for Black. In extreme cases, thug is chosen as a dog whistle to imply that Black people are generally prone to violence or criminality.
However, there is also a reclaimed sense of thug within the Black community, and particularly in the hip-hop community, one that acknowledges the violence implicit in the label while also celebrating toughness and street smarts.
Because thug has many implied connotations that may change depending on who is using the word and who is being described by it, it’s important to critically consider the context and tone around each particular instance of its use to truly understand what is being communicated.
Other words from thug
- thug·ger·y [thuhg-uh-ree], /ˈθʌg ə ri/, noun
- thug·gish, adjective
Words Nearby thug
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use thug in a sentence
Mike has busted broncos, been tossed by bulls, alienated his former wife with his stoicism and, most recently, taken on various thugs.
What Clint Eastwood can teach Americans about the lost art of persuasion | Alyssa Rosenberg | September 27, 2021 | Washington PostTo do so, he had to lie that these prisoners hadn’t really wanted better conditions, that they were just violent thugs.
50 Years After Attica, Prisoners Are Still Protesting Brutal Conditions. Will America Finally Listen? | Heather Ann Thompson | September 8, 2021 | TimeStarting in 1997, as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Roth held a series of hearings that portrayed IRS agents as menacing thugs.
Lord of the Roths: How Tech Mogul Peter Thiel Turned a Retirement Account for the Middle Class Into a $5 Billion Tax-Free Piggy Bank | by Justin Elliott, Patricia Callahan and James Bandler | June 24, 2021 | ProPublicaA militia group called the Kenosha Guard last year created a Facebook event page that encouraged people to “take up arms” and defend the Wisconsin city from “evil thugs.”
Civil rights groups flagged dozens of anti-Muslim pages and groups to Facebook that stayed up, lawsuit alleges | Elizabeth Dwoskin | April 8, 2021 | Washington PostToday’s vision of these ancient relations is as distant from old views of Neanderthals—unintelligent cave thugs, the losers of our family tree—as modern astronomy is from the idea of a universe bounded by the Milky Way.
Much of What We Thought About Neanderthals Was Wrong. Here’s Why That Matters | Rebecca Wragg Sykes | October 27, 2020 | Time
In his infamous deposition video, you can clearly see that the “thug life” façade is stripped away.
Method Man Talks Wu-Tang Clan Reunion, Fake Rappers, and the Suge Knight Shooting | Marlow Stern | September 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTMaybe the thug even used to be you, until you went straight.
Women would refuse to go near any man with thuggish associations, for real—barely a thug could expect to get any action.
I also made a thug chase movie with a bunch of my friends in high school.
How ‘Transcendence’ Director Wally Pfister Became Christopher Nolan’s Secret Weapon | Andrew Romano | April 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe Kremlin loses a useful propaganda tool, but it also eliminates a thug with a lot of Russian blood on his hands.
Who Killed One of the Most Notorious Right Sector Leaders in Ukraine? | Oleg Shynkarenko | March 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIf we risk ourselves against these fellows, and are victorious, will not every thug in the land cry Shabash!
Confessions of a Thug | Philip Meadows TaylorAfter all, Sahib, cannot you now understand the excitement which possesses the soul of a thug in his pursuit of men?
Confessions of a Thug | Philip Meadows TaylorWe hear so much of him, that, by Bhowanee, perhaps an unlucky old thug like myself may pick up something new.
Confessions of a Thug | Philip Meadows TaylorThe old thug and myself had been bound together, and we were in this state thrust into one of the narrow cells of the jail.
Confessions of a Thug | Philip Meadows TaylorI and another thug were directed to watch their movements, while the main body went on.
Confessions of a Thug | Philip Meadows Taylor
British Dictionary definitions for thug
/ (θʌɡ) /
a tough and violent man, esp a criminal
(sometimes capital) (formerly) a member of an organization of robbers and assassins in India who typically strangled their victims
Origin of thug
1Derived forms of thug
- thuggery, noun
- thuggish, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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