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

His assistant coach at N.C. State went rogue, and landed a recruit with cash, and Gottfried was just the unassuming head coach of the N.C. State basketball team. — Joseph Goodman | Jgoodman@al.com, al.com, "Basketball corruption could upstage SEC Media Days," 14 July 2019 There was The Bomb Squad of season 16 that fell apart by week 3 when Devin went rogue. — Lynette Rice, EW.com, "Big Brother producer says size of Gr8tful alliance is 'ridiculous'," 5 July 2019 But what happens when front offices go rogue and buck consensus? — Dan Falkenheim, SI.com, "Restricted Free Agents Most Likely to Sign Elsewhere This Offseason," 19 June 2019 And why was there no internal pushback at a supercilious leadership that demonstrably had gone rogue? — Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, "The FBI Tragedy: Elites above the Law," 11 June 2019 In another video, former President Obama goes rogue, feeling the beat of the song solo while free-styling. — Christian Allaire, Vogue, "The Obamas Have a Beyoncé Dance Party," 29 July 2018 This launches a tour of O’Reilly's thoughts on platforms and other tech ecosystems—and those who abuse them (exhibit A is Microsoft, exhibit B is Twitter, followed by an entire alphabet of rogues). — Rob Reid, Ars Technica, "Ars on your lunch break: Tim O‘Reilly discusses the birth of “open source”," 1 Aug. 2018 The President made similar comments in the Oval Office Tuesday, declining to rule out the possibility that North Korea's denuclearization could be the result of an incremental process in which the rogue state is incentivized. — Maegan Vazquez And Allie Malloy, CNN, "Trump signals shift in administration policy on North Korea denuclearization," 24 May 2018 The rogue nation has generally remained silent or tersely denied involvement in hacking attacks previously. — Timothy W. Martin, WSJ, "North Korea Bristles After U.S. Charges Alleged Sony Hacker," 14 Sep. 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

And then a male friend suggested something rogue – something that didn’t annoy me. — Vicky Spratt, refinery29.com, "Can Everyone Please Stop Telling Me To Read The Secret?It's Not Helping," 2 July 2019 There were discussions of spinning off the character as early as 2011, but plans didn’t shift into gear until after the introduction of Statham’s rogue British agent Shaw in 2013’s Fast & Furious 6. — Devan Coggan, EW.com, "Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, and Idris Elba gear up for Fast & Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw," 27 June 2019 An impoverished Iran is bereft of allies and remains an international pariah, desperate to sell its embargoed oil to any rogue autocracy shameless enough to buy it. — Victor Davis Hanson, The Mercury News, "Hanson: Why the US can afford to stay calm with Iran," 27 June 2019 Whatever the future of gene editing, Pei sought to strike an optimistic tone about the potential for countries to work closely to discourage rogue science. — STAT, "Alarmed by new ‘CRISPR babies’ plan, top science figures say they’re powerless to stop it," 24 June 2019 The rogue unit even set up a brothel to go undercover, the reports claimed. — New York Times, "Corruption Gutted South Africa’s Tax Agency. Now the Nation Is Paying the Price.," 10 June 2018 With investigators led by city police coming up empty-handed, authorities say a fresh perspective is necessary as the force grapples with the fallout of an explosive federal corruption probe into a rogue unit of Baltimore detectives. — Crimesider Staff, CBS News, "Independent review board to tackle case of murdered Baltimore detective," 5 Mar. 2018 So, being under the sun for hours on end, immersing it in chlorine in the pool, and using hotel shampoos and conditioner (no shade), had me a bit worried that my hair was going to go rogue during my stay at the festival. — Bianca Nieves, Teen Vogue, "The Music Festival First-Timer's Survival Guide," 19 Apr. 2019 Was his anonymous approach to Ms. Watkins, which violated law enforcement standards, part of an authorized operation or the work of a rogue agent? — New York Times, "Border Agent Who Questioned Reporter Is Investigated for Computer Misuse," 12 July 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.