rogue

noun

\ˈrōg

Definition of rogue

(Entry 1 of 4)

1 : vagrant, tramp

2 : a dishonest or worthless person : scoundrel

3 : a mischievous person : scamp

4 : a horse inclined to shirk or misbehave

5 : an individual exhibiting a chance and usually inferior biological variation

rogue

verb

rogued; roguing or rogueing

Definition of rogue (Entry 2 of 4)

intransitive verb

: to weed out inferior, diseased, or nontypical individuals from a crop plant or a field

rogue

adjective

Definition of rogue (Entry 3 of 4)

1 : resembling or suggesting a rogue elephant especially in being isolated, aberrant, dangerous, or uncontrollable capsized by a rogue wave

2 : corrupt, dishonest rogue cops

3 : of or being a nation whose leaders defy international law or norms of international behavior rogue states

Rogue

geographical name

\ˈrōg

Definition of Rogue (Entry 4 of 4)

river about 200 miles (320 kilometers) long in southwestern Oregon rising in Crater Lake National Park and flowing west and southwest into the Pacific Ocean

Other Words from rogue Synonyms & Antonyms More Example Sentences Learn More about rogue

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Examples of rogue in a Sentence

Noun

Many of the vagabonds were rogues and cheaters of various kinds, and formed a subcommunity on the fringes of official society. — Charles Barber, Early Modern English, 1976 Cartier decided that the two boys were a choice pair of rogues who would probably try to run him aground if taken as pilots, and that he would dispense with their services. — Samuel Eliot Morison, The European Discovery of America, 1971 His account of their discoveries in the low life of a seaport town would have made a charming book, and in the various characters that came their way the student might easily have found matter for a very complete dictionary of rogues. — W. Somerset Maugham, Moon and Sixpence, 1919 He's a lovable old rogue. a rogue who had nothing but contempt for people who made their living honestly

Adjective

Americans assume that our country was built by rogue males but there's more to the breed than wanderlust and rugged individualism. — Florence King, National Review, 27 Aug. 2007 Perhaps more important, defense planners worried for the past year about the instability of the Soviet Union and the nightmare that a rogue Soviet submarine skipper might decide on his own to launch close to 200 warheads at U.S. targets. — John Barry, Newsweek, 3 June 1991 In "The In-Laws," Alan Arkin is a dentist led astray by a rogue C.I.A. operative … , whose son his daughter is marrying, and he winds up dodging bullets on a Caribbean island. — Terrence Rafferty, New Yorker, 30 July 1990 a rogue administrator who took bribes to falsify paperwork

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

The social network has come under fire in the wake of a rogue app developer that passed on 87 million users' information to a political marketing firm during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. — Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY, "Apple will let you know when Facebook is snooping on you," 4 June 2018 Played by a soulful but occasionally hard-to-understand Tom Burke, Cormoran Strike gets submerged in television's deluge of brilliant rogue detectives. — Inkoo Kang, The Hollywood Reporter, "'C.B. Strike': TV Review," 31 May 2018 And who could forget the haywire moment where a galloping horse went rogue following the ceremony? — Christian Allaire, Vogue, "The Best Social Media Reactions to the Royal Wedding," 19 May 2018 New pressures on nuclear North Korea have prompted the toughest U.N. trade sanctions in history on the rogue state. — Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, "A Year of Achievement," 7 Feb. 2018 Overactive immune responses can be deadly, resulting in a storm of inflammation in which immune cells go rogue and begin destroying healthy tissues and cells. — Alice Park, Time, "A Better Flu Shot May Be On the Horizon. Here's Why," 14 June 2018 Kim Kardashian may have control over her kids' exposure to social media right now (except for when North occasionally goes rogue and posts a surprise tweet or Instagram pic to her mom's accounts), but what about when her children are older? — Sarah Lindig, Harper's BAZAAR, "Kim Kardashian Reveals When She'll Let North Start Using Social Media," 6 Aug. 2016 Late last January, with Tom Brady under siege, Bill Belichick playing physicist, Robert Kraft going rogue and the country debating a strange controversy known as Deflategate, the Seahawks arrived in Arizona for Super Bowl XLIX. — Greg Bishop, SI.com, "Suspicions of Bill Belichick's Patriots regime persist among opponents," 8 Sep. 2015 But Samantha the attendant finally puts a lid on the rogue play, sending Murphy home to his wife early. — Amy S. Rosenberg, Philly.com, "Ocean City and the most cutthroat pickleball game at the Jersey Shore," 11 July 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

But a conservative Court of Appeals panel could rogue and decide to disobey Roe and Casey. — Dylan Matthews, Vox, "America under Brett Kavanaugh," 11 July 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective

Facebook says that it was not compromised, that the number is likely overstated, and that any data leak is likely the fault of a rogue third-party browser extension. — Casey Newton, The Verge, "One way Twitter’s ad archive improves on Facebook’s," 3 Nov. 2018 China considers Taiwan a rogue province and such an act symbolically places the U.S. Navy between Beijing and its goal of eventual reunification with the island's government. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "U.S. Navy Proposing Major Exercises Aimed at China," 4 Oct. 2018 For the first time, the U.S. government has publicly acknowledged the existence in Washington of what appear to be rogue devices that foreign spies and criminals could be using to track individual cellphones and intercept calls and messages. — Time, "Foreign Governments Could Be Using High-Tech Gadgets to Intercept Calls and Texts in Washington," 3 Apr. 2018 For the first time, the U.S. government has publicly acknowledged the existence in Washington of what appear to be rogue devices that foreign spies and criminals could be using to track individual cellphones and intercept calls and messages. — CBS News, "Rogue cellphone-tracking devices detected in Washington, feds say," 3 Apr. 2018 For the first time, the U.S. government has publicly acknowledged the existence in Washington of what appear to be rogue devices that foreign spies and criminals could be using to track individual cellphones and intercept calls and messages. — Fox News, "Homeland Security finds suspected listening devices in Washington," 3 Apr. 2018 Image The core elements of the premise — rogue tentacles, prickly villains, a found family and swoon-worthy romances — are familiar to aficionados of genre entertainment. — Maureen Ryan, New York Times, "A Cult Show’s Recipe for Success: Whiskey, Twitter and Complex Women," 6 July 2018 During a court hearing Thursday in the case against Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, the special counsel's team indirectly pushed back against assertions that its investigation has gone rogue or corrupt. — Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN, "Comey memos, Rudy and Russia: The latest jam-packed news day in Trump's presidency," 20 Apr. 2018 Since then, foreign policy watchers have warned that the move would isolate the US, risk further destabilizing the Middle East, and invite another nuclear rogue nation into the world. — Andy Greenberg, WIRED, "The Iran Nuclear Deal's Unraveling Raises Fears of Cyberattacks," 9 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'rogue.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.