juvenile delinquent

noun

as in offender
a young person who has committed a crime

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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 juvenile delinquent The docuseries also details Gabriel's younger years as a juvenile delinquent. — Daniela Avila, PEOPLE, 1 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for juvenile delinquent
  1. tough
  2. gangster
  3. mobster
  4. ruffian
  5. thug
  6. hoodlum
  7. punk
  8. criminal
Noun
  • In that version, the character is played by Joe Don Baker, the great character actor known for playing toughs in films like Walking Tall (1973) and Fletch (1985).
    — Britt Hayes, Entertainment Weekly, 5 June 2026
  • So, while Rue and Maddy are confabbing over milkshakes in a diner, Alamo sends Rue off for a drive with his two toughs, G (Marshawn Lynch) and the icy Bishop (Darrell Britt-Gibson).
    — Marlow Stern, Variety, 11 May 2026
Definition of tough
Noun
  • Ritchson plays a tough guy who falls for a local gangster’s girl.
    — Anthony D'Alessandro, Deadline, 21 July 2026
  • 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
Definition of gangster
Noun
  • Hoffa drove to a restaurant in a Detroit suburb to meet two reputed mobsters.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 July 2026
  • Pete Davidson has a flair for the dramatics — and his new role as New York City mobster Tommy Pitera proves it.
    — Shelby Stivale, Entertainment Weekly, 23 July 2026
Definition of mobster
Noun
  • Interestingly, that cigar-smoking biker ruffian was not a character in the DC Comics title of a few years back.
    — Jeff Spry, Space.com, 5 June 2026
  • The series has lent a cinematic gangster attraction to the Peaky Blinders, yet the term itself was not one gang — as depicted in the show — but a generic expression from the late 19th century for the ‘street ruffians’ of Birmingham, born out of the city’s ring of poverty.
    — Jacob Tanswell, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2026
Definition of ruffian
Noun
  • Shortly after his big win, he’s attacked by two thugs in a parking garage.
    — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 30 July 2026
  • The night of the title fight, Duke is attacked by two thugs who smash his hand with a hammer and, in the ensuing chaos, kill somebody close to him.
    — Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 30 July 2026
Definition of thug
Noun
  • Also in his orbit are a consortium of crooks, including his cousin Freddie, a hip junkie, and Pepper, a taciturn hoodlum who was friends with Ray’s dad, Big Mike, a legendary thief.
    — Niela Orr, Vulture, 20 July 2026
  • 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
Definition of hoodlum
Noun
  • Photo by Barry Brecheisen Swedish post punks Viagra Boys helped close out night one of Lollapalooza 2026 during a one hour set adjacent to the Art Institute of Chicago on the Airbnb stage.
    — Jim Ryan, Forbes.com, 31 July 2026
  • Despite the project’s associations with jazz, improv, and post-punk, Durutti Column transcendence rarely arises from a guys-in-the-room mentality; Reilly seems to compose in profound isolation, letting ambered reverb pool out from his fingers.
    — Jazz Monroe, Pitchfork, 30 July 2026
Definition of punk
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 criminal

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juvenile
juvenile delinquent
juvenile delinquents
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Cite this Entry

“Juvenile delinquent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/juvenile%20delinquent. Accessed 2 Aug. 2026.

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