plural thugs
Definition of thug
1
see usage paragraph below
: a violent or brutish criminal or bully
a brutal thug a gang of thugs … in American History X, Norton … plays a vicious young Venice Beach thug, a racist skinhead with … a thick black swastika tattooed over one bulging pec, and a gleam of murder in his eye.— Owen Gleiberman An authoritarian government willing to use the most brutal means to hold on to power; a dictator whose thugs have murdered, tortured, imprisoned or intimidated tens of thousands of civilians …— Michiko Kakutani
2
: a member of a group of murderous robbers in India's past whose activities were suppressed in the early nineteenth century
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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Time Traveler for thug
The first known use of thug was in 1839
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