Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Showing results for "Yahoos"

Yahoos

Cultural  
  1. 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.


Discover More

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.

See Examples For:

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

Their land is plagued by feral animals known as the Yahoos — which, Gulliver is shocked to learn, have human physical form beneath their fur.

From Nature Sep. 26, 2017

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

The American Fairy Tale, Fun House Style Of all the disagreeable species of humanlike beings Jonathan Swift invented in “Gulliver’s Travels,” the Yahoos are the worst and most human of all.

From New York Times Jun. 27, 2013

Curiously enough, also, it was Swift’s belief that, Yahoos though we are, the world is always in the right.

From The Three Devils: Luther's, Milton's, and Goethe's With Other Essays by David Masson

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 12,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training