rambunctious
adjective
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Rambunctious Has (Possible) British Origins
Rambunctious first appeared in print in the early half of the 19th century, at a time when the fast-growing United States was forging its identity and indulging in a fashion for colorful new coinages suggestive of the young nation's optimism and exuberance. Rip-roaring, scalawag, scrumptious, hornswoggle, and skedaddle are other examples of the lively language of that era. Did Americans alter the largely British rumbustious because it sounded, well, British? That could be. Rumbustious, which first appeared in Britain in the late 1700s just after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was probably based on robustious, a much older adjective that meant both "robust" and "boisterous."
Synonyms
Examples of rambunctious in a Sentence
Matt Simon, WIRED, 5 Apr. 2024
The non-skid grips on the sock bottoms help prevent your rambunctious toddler from taking a spill, while the cotton blend is soft on sensitive feet.
—Maya Polton, Parents, 28 Mar. 2024
One afternoon in February, a rambunctious swarm of thirty or so children raced around a large plot of Astroturf.
—Eliza Griswold, The New Yorker, 21 Mar. 2024
Image Until then, Stella bunked with the other oasis residents, mainly a rambunctious group of beagles employed by government agencies for airport security.
—Claire Fahy, New York Times, 17 Mar. 2024
Cooper is a rambunctious 3-year-old who loves Hot Wheels and dinosaurs.
—Alex Ross, Peoplemag, 15 Mar. 2024
This rambunctious tale of not-so-scary scary monsters is utterly charming, totally surreal, and wonderfully familiar.
—Ew Staff, EW.com, 14 Mar. 2024
For example, an older cat forced to cohabitate with a rambunctious sibling may isolate, hiss or growl when they can’t be left alone; conversely, a young cat that spends much of the day on its own may create trouble out of boredom.
—Colleen Grablick, Washington Post, 12 Mar. 2024
There's so much going on in The Sound of Music — catchy songs, rambunctious children, day-saving nuns, and a World War — that the romantic aspect moves down the list of things that come to mind.
—Lia Beck, EW.com, 6 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rambunctious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near rambunctious
Cite this Entry
“Rambunctious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rambunctious. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
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rambunctious
adjective
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