as in hick
an awkward or simple person especially from a small town or the country
rural voters were tired of being treated as rubes by state officials, who showed interest in them only at election time
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of rube
All those unsuspecting rubes with no idea what’s about to hit them.
—
Joe Hagan,
Vanity Fair,
18 Mar. 2026
That set-up makes Cole relatively unique among prediction markets’ headliners, many of whom are suspected of exploiting insider info to dupe rubes for short-term gains.
—
Joe Wilkins,
Futurism,
26 Feb. 2026
Harry would be right to be bitter; Sally’s optimism was for rubes.
—
Alexandra Schwartz,
New Yorker,
17 Dec. 2025
Bradford sends her off to Alaska, instructing her on how to manipulate Frank, who everybody assumes is a rube.
—
Daniel Fienberg,
HollywoodReporter,
3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for rube
Joe Hagan,
Vanity Fair,
18 Mar. 2026
That set-up makes Cole relatively unique among prediction markets’ headliners, many of whom are suspected of exploiting insider info to dupe rubes for short-term gains.
—
Joe Wilkins,
Futurism,
26 Feb. 2026
Harry would be right to be bitter; Sally’s optimism was for rubes.
—
Alexandra Schwartz,
New Yorker,
17 Dec. 2025
Bradford sends her off to Alaska, instructing her on how to manipulate Frank, who everybody assumes is a rube.
—
Daniel Fienberg,
HollywoodReporter,
3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for rube
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rube
Noun
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When Johnson was vice president and visiting Europe, there were reports filed by these British ambassadors in several countries that basically made fun of him as a hick.
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So a bunch of hicks from Topeka were left up to our own devices of going down to Robert Hall and finding something that might be kind of cool.
Noun
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Simply put, the small-town bumpkins from North Florida who support this idea should be made to pay for it.
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Clifton loved motorcycles and, as Hawkins said, was a country bumpkin who loved nature.
Noun
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The only leaders more buffoonish and lethal than the fairground hucksters elected in our failing democracies are the omnipotent clowns of tyranny.
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Up until his first day of filming Jackass, Steve-O was a clown in nightclubs, cruise ships and at a flea-market circus.
Noun
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It was left to the feds in Boston to arrest Farwell, after Meatball’s local yokels adamantly refused to do anything other than try to broom the crime by one of their own.
Noun
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Duke Slater, pal of Jim Nabors’ hayseed Gomer Pyle on the ’60s sitcom of that name, died of natural causes today at UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles.
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Baby Billy’s first full-frontal scene is more a testament to Walton Goggins’s incredible hayseed bravado in the rule.
Noun
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The back-to-the-land aesthetic of peasant skirts, head scarves, and florals seems to seep into fashion at this time of year, but a distinctly folk vibe is now taking over interiors too.
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Most urban Russians in those days were little more than one generation removed from their peasant roots, so just about everyone remembered the relevant skills.
Noun
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Marlowe, the son of a poor Canterbury cobbler, and Shakespeare, the son of a Stratford glover and alderman, were both unlikely artistic geniuses, provincials in a nation in which social class was rigidly fixed.
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Sanders is a Catholic priest and former Augustinian provincial in California and lives in the Augustinian community in North Park.
Cite this Entry
“Rube.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rube. Accessed 30 Jun. 2026.
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