Thesaurus results for HOODLUMS

hoodlums

noun

plural of hoodlum

as in thugs

a violent, brutal person who is often a member of an organized gang a couple of hoodlums held up the convenience store

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of hoodlums In the past decade, the leadership of the Kinahan organization has become rich and cosmopolitan, and their life styles have started to resemble those of international businessmen more than of street hoodlums. — Ed Caesar, New Yorker, 30 Apr. 2026 The first pictures McCullin took were of hoodlums and down-and-outs, subjects that reflected his own hardscrabble background. — Andrew Pulver, Air Mail, 31 Jan. 2026 Aleah and Grasso end up saving Lizzie’s ass and capturing the hoodlums. — Grace Byron, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2025 However, hoodlums and thugs who throw objects at the players give up their rights and should be removed, charged, and possibly jailed. — Kate Plummer, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 Aug. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for hoodlums

Noun

In the big screen take of Clayface, Hagen is a matinee idol on the rise, but his face gets slashed by thugs.

— Anthony D'Alessandro, Deadline, 23 July 2026
Threatening to limit mail-in voting, adding ridiculous ID requirements, or staging thugs at polling places are other possible ways to convince you to stay home.

— Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 6 July 2026

Definition of thugs

Noun

The detective-heroines (and especially the actress-detectives) in this canon are careful about how performance might be extended to social duplicity, dishonesty, and fraud—but the lady criminals of Victorian detective fiction cross this line easily.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 24 July 2026
From 1873 to 1991, the island served as Costa Rica’s principal penitentiary, where some of the country’s worst criminals were sent to serve often short and torturous sentences.

— Rafa Sales Ross, Variety, 24 July 2026

Definition of criminals

Noun

Remember all those fake memoirs from the early 2000s, by all those writers pretending to be addicts and gangsters and Holocaust survivors?

— James Parker, The Atlantic, 20 July 2026
In each, the protagonist(s) will be sought by both police and gangsters yet will lose their own money and have to get along without any while on the run.

— Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 15 July 2026

Definition of gangsters

Noun

The plot is set in motion when dacoits (armed bandits) rob and murder Ram Lal, the village moneylender and head of Mano Majra’s only Hindu household.

— Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 July 2026
Instead, most are romantic stories about young lovers separated by fate, and the rest are swashbuckling adventures full of bandits and pirates.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 30 June 2026

Definition of bandits

Noun

Em details how Alan Rickman who played Hans Gruber, one of the most iconic villains in film history, offered director John McTiernan several key ideas that improved the film.

— Frank Racioppi, Forbes.com, 27 July 2026
That moment sealed his fate as one of the biggest Cubs villains in Cubs-Cardinals history.

— Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 26 July 2026

Definition of villains

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“Hoodlums.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hoodlums. Accessed 30 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of hoodlums

noun

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