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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Recent Examples of rube
Like master poker players sitting at a table with rubes, Wall Street’s quants and algorithmic traders like Citadel not only profit from Robinhood's customers' trades, but use the large amount of retail trading data from these purchases to anticipate market moves and profit.
—
Javier Paz, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2025
Well, the rubes just elected Donald Trump president.
—Chris Roemer, Baltimore Sun, 8 Nov. 2024
That’s easy: a rube, chump, or mark, whose naive optimism sets them up for betrayal.
—Jamil Zaki, TIME, 3 Sep. 2024
Sometimes, the film’s examination of excess can simply be excessive, but The Wolf of Wall Street is hypnotizing — and a damning condemnation of us poor rubes.
—Will Leitch, Vulture, 8 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for rube
Javier Paz, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2025
Well, the rubes just elected Donald Trump president.
—Chris Roemer, Baltimore Sun, 8 Nov. 2024
That’s easy: a rube, chump, or mark, whose naive optimism sets them up for betrayal.
—Jamil Zaki, TIME, 3 Sep. 2024
Sometimes, the film’s examination of excess can simply be excessive, but The Wolf of Wall Street is hypnotizing — and a damning condemnation of us poor rubes.
—Will Leitch, Vulture, 8 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for rube
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rube
Noun
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Without so many of the fears, complexes, and prejudices hick shaped us in the ‘90s and the ‘00s.—
John Hopewell,
Variety,
20 June 2025
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Sorrentino may also be exorcising some conflicting feelings about his birthplace, which is portrayed as a vulgar, crude place populated by crooks and hicks and photographed like its paradise.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
7 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Going to the Ron Burgundy–Ricky Bobby idiot well one time too many, Ferrell plays Cam Brady, a lazy, cynical longtime congressman running against a local bumpkin (Galifianakis).—
Tim Grierson,
Vulture,
4 Feb. 2025
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Carter, perhaps the most decent man to ever occupy the Oval Office, was long written off as a country bumpkin, one who perhaps unsurprisingly left office as a one-term anomaly.—
Philip Elliott,
TIME,
9 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Among the players connected to the disappearance are a wide and varied cast of Austin characters: an up-and-coming boxer who crossed the border from Mexico under strange circumstances, a rookie cop determined to crack the case, a grifter clown (figurative and literal).—
Lucas Schaefer
June 13,
Literary Hub,
13 June 2025
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As the animals fought, brass bands played and clowns entertained.—
Hailey Branson-Potts,
Los Angeles Times,
3 June 2025
Noun
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It was adapted into a huge hit movie starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, but the breakout characters were local yokels Ma and Pa Kettle, who went on to star in eight spinoff movies.—
Brian Boone,
Vulture,
18 June 2025
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To the yokel who makes his donations in cash and is proud of himself for knowing what LEO stands for.—
Ticked Off,
The Orlando Sentinel,
15 June 2025
Noun
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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.—
Scott Tobias,
Vulture,
31 Mar. 2025
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Mantle was the voluble hayseed from Oklahoma who could hit anything but was corrupted by the big city, and wound up undone by alcohol and knee injuries.—
Adam Gopnik,
The New Yorker,
21 June 2024
Noun
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Once known to be a peasant’s dish, according to one story, the addition of feta in the 1960s really put it on the proverbial map.—
CNN.com Wire Service,
Mercury News,
19 June 2025
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Exacerbating the widespread unrest was the royal family’s close relationship with Grigori Rasputin, a Siberian peasant who claimed to wield control over the health of Alexei, the czar’s only son.—
Meilan Solly,
Smithsonian Magazine,
13 June 2025
Noun
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Sanders is a Catholic priest and former Augustinian provincial in California and lives in the Augustinian community in North Park.—
Gary Sanders,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
14 May 2025
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Not long after his ordination, he was named the Jesuit provincial for Argentina, which put him in charge of the order’s activities throughout the country.—
Carlos De Loera,
Los Angeles Times,
21 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Rube.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rube. Accessed 1 Jul. 2025.
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