Thesaurus results for PLUG-UGLIES

plug-uglies

noun

plural of plug-ugly

as in thugs

a violent, brutal person who is often a member of an organized gang sent over a couple of hulking plug-uglies to rough up the store owner

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for plug-uglies

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 thugs

Noun

That gives criminals several ways to target you, even when your Paidwork balance was nearly empty.

— Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 1 Aug. 2026
Cyber criminals are using highly convincing counterfeit audio, video, and identity fabrications as tools in ways that conventional detection methods will fail to identify.

— Chuck Brooks, Forbes.com, 31 July 2026

Definition of criminals

Noun

Still, bonus points for casting Chukwudi Iwuji as the menacing High Evolutionary, one of the oddest and most unsettling Marvel villains in recent memory.

— EW Staff, Entertainment Weekly, 3 Aug. 2026
This trend suggests a need for new, effective villains to balance the roster.

— Alfred Konuwa, Forbes.com, 2 Aug. 2026

Definition of villains

Noun

Sehnaoui's meeting with the Israeli leader occurred as some in Lebanon have called for abolishing a 1955 law that bans dealing with Israel or having contacts with Israelis and punishes offenders with up to 10 years in jail.

— ABC News, ABC News, 29 July 2026
The current penalty for disclosure violations is $200 for first-time offenders.

— Justin Papp, CNBC, 22 July 2026

Definition of offenders

Noun

The hijacking is the latest in a series of attacks attributed to Somali pirates, whose activities have resurfaced in the Gulf of Aden and the western Indian Ocean after years of relative inactivity.

— Omar Faruk, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2026
But then a banquet meal goes horribly awry, and pirates sink the ship.

— K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 17 July 2026

Definition of pirates

Noun

Lucky Number Slevin, a movie about mistaken identity, rival crime syndicates, and assassins, was, for some reason (Josh Hartnett), one of the comfort movies of my childhood.

— Tamim Alnuweiri, InStyle, 1 July 2026
These artisans, with their trade secrets, were kept on Murano, a cluster of islands just across the lagoon from the city, ostensibly as a precaution against fire, though the state would also send assassins after anyone who tried to leave.

— Cal Revely-Calder, New Yorker, 29 June 2026

Definition of assassins

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

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.

Browse Nearby Words

plugs (up)

plug-uglies

plug-ugly

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“Plug-uglies.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plug-uglies. Accessed 4 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of plug-uglies

noun

Example Sentences

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