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Yahoos

Cultural

The crude, dirty “brutes” of the land of the Houyhnhnms in Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift. The Yahoos are irrational people and represent the worst side of humanity. By contrast, the wise and gentle Houyhnhnms, their masters, are rational horses and represent humanity at its best.

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A “yahoo” is an uncouth or uncivilized person.

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.

You’re doing all the right stuff by yourself, and you’re among professionals, medical professionals, not Yahoos, and you can still have someone else make a mistake and your life is gone.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 13, 2026

The Yahoos amplify all of humanity's worst traits, and through them Swift challenges the anthropocentric view of the world in a way that seems very modern.

From Nature • Sep. 26, 2017

She maintained sorority discipline when the Yahoos from CNN were around.

From New York Times • Nov. 3, 2016

Those benefits are really only a trademark of the big guys—the Facebooks, Apples, Googles and Yahoos of Silicon Valley.

From Time • Aug. 5, 2015

Swift is in the same class, but Swift enjoyed scarifying his Yahoos.

From Unicorns by Huneker, James

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023