hoodlum

noun

hood·​lum ˈhüd-ləm  ˈhu̇d- 

plural hoodlums

1

somewhat old-fashioned : a usually violent criminal

… hoodlums smashed through the glass enclosed foyer of a Royal Bank of Canada branch with a backhoe and scooped a machine right from the wall.

—Ron Suskind

Newspapers and broadcasters all over the country, including the New York Times, referred to this … murder as an "execution," and the hoodlums as an "execution team."

—Harold Evans

On October 24, 1931, Judge James H. Wilkerson sentenced America's most powerful hoodlum to eleven years in jail, fines of $50,000, and court costs of $30,000.

—David Burnham

2

somewhat old-fashioned : a young person who behaves in a rowdy or intimidating way : ruffian

… a moonlit late-summer battle between leather-jacketed hoodlums and T-shirt-clad fathers …

—David Leavitt

Yeah, the girl has a little hoodlum in her. She's a hard-edged street kid who can probably kick Dick Button's butt.

—Bryan Burwell

… the court sits just below … where Coney Island's worst hoodlums sometimes pass a summer evening "getting hectic," as they say—shooting at each other or tossing batteries and beer bottles onto the court from apartment windows fifteen stories above.

—Darcy Frey

hoodlumish

ˈhüd-lə-mish 

ˈhu̇d-

adjective somewhat old-fashioned

hoodlumism

ˈhüd-lə-ˌmi-zəm 

ˈhu̇d-

noun somewhat old-fashioned

Did you know?

A hoodlum can be anyone from a dangerous thug to a young person who's just up to no good. The exact origins of the word are not known, but one theory is that the word derives from hudelum, an adjective that means "disorderly" in dialects of German spoken in and around the region of Swabia. A similar-looking word for a young troublemaker is hooligan, but that word is not related to hoodlum; rather, it most likely derives from the name of Patrick Hooligan, an Irish youth purported to have wreaked havoc in the streets of Southwark, England, in the late 19th century.

Synonyms

• thug
• gangster
• criminal
• villain
• bandit

Examples of hoodlum in a Sentence

a couple of hoodlums held up the convenience store

Recent Examples on the Web

Sir Jimmy Crystal gives deeply unsettling vibes from the get-go, and while his bizarre gang of hoodlums do save Spike’s life, it’s implied that Spike may have wandered into a much worse situation. —Dani Di Placido, Forbes.com, 25 June 2025

Critics say police gave up when the rioting erupted in 1992, letting big chunks of the city burn while looters and hoodlums ruled. —Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, 12 June 2025

His hoodlum phase in New York was re-created at the Lenox Lounge in Harlem. —CBS News, 2 May 2025

The gang specialized in hijacking cars and guarding bootleg liquor shipments for other hoodlums during the Prohibition era. —Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 3 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

perhaps from German dialect (Swabia) hudelum disorderly

First Known Use

1866, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

hoodlum

noun

hood·​lum ˈhüd-ləm 

1

: a usually violent criminal

2

: a youth whose behavior is rowdy or intimidating