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
  1. thugs
  2. criminals
  3. villains
  4. offenders
  5. pirates
  6. assassins
  7. gangsters
  8. bandits
Noun
  • The eponymous former assassin is drawn back into the game after some thugs (led by Alfie Allen) kill his dog and royally piss him off.
    — Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Shortly after his big win, he’s attacked by two thugs in a parking garage.
    — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 30 July 2026
Definition of thugs
Noun
  • Boxing is fun especially when the boxer in question is beating up criminals in East London.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2026
  • Working together to track these flows would reduce the chance that international criminals can extend their reach beyond any single jurisdiction.
    — Alvin Camba, Foreign Affairs, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of criminals
Noun
  • The ’90s were an era of event villains, characters who came preinstalled with their own company-wide impact.
    — Daniel Dockery, Vulture, 24 Aug. 2026
  • Anthony Hopkins has played villains and popes, presidents and dictators, titans of literature and comic book kings.
    — Melissa Ruggieri, USA Today, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of villains
Noun
  • Laws regarding incarceration of youthful offenders — age 25 or younger at the time of the crime — have evolved since the siblings were tried.
    — Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Aug. 2026
  • From names like ChatGPT and Gemini to Meta AI, Perplexity, and even Grok, the report identifies which chatbots are the most privacy-friendly and transparent in their practices and which are the worst offenders.
    — Alan Henry, PC Magazine, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of offenders
Noun
  • Internally at the studios, copyright divisions spend their energy targeting larger criminal operations enabling these digital pirates — the hives sharing and disseminating premium content.
    — Gene Maddaus, Variety, 21 Aug. 2026
  • Eight pirates, believed to be members of a group previously involved in the hijacking of the M/V Sward on April 26, took the vessel toward the coast near Garmaal in Puntland’s Dangoroyo district.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of pirates
Noun
  • Meanwhile, Clive Owen and other assassins pursue them through the streets of Europe.
    — Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Many of Ellis’s most awful characters are the most conventionally attractive, their looks serving as a shield against their various crimes; Murphy co-created The Beauty, in which tech moguls and assassins kill to be beautiful.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 5 Aug. 2026
Definition of assassins
Noun
  • The bodies start piling up – and business booms – but the growing enterprise puts the trio in the crosshairs of the powerful gangsters and underworld figures in the lawless border town of Saribgunj.
    — Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 17 Aug. 2026
  • Duane Keith Davis is accused of orchestrating Shakur’s killing in September 1996, and the lore of other rappers and gangsters looms large over his trial.
    — Aditi Sangal, CNN Money, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of gangsters
Noun
  • One Arab American man later recalled that his great-grandfather, who pursued a similar route, never made it to the Midwest—his train was stopped by a group of bandits from Mexico who forced the passengers to hand over their belongings.
    — Rozina Ali, New Yorker, 21 Aug. 2026
  • The train was sitting just outside a depot in Memphis when the bandits made their move.
    — Kiel Porter, Fortune, 17 Aug. 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
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Plug-uglies.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plug-uglies. Accessed 25 Aug. 2026.

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