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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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of rube
As for partisan rubes like Senator Van Hollen, Maryland can do better.
—
Chris Roemer, Baltimore Sun, 26 June 2025
There was no quintessential American, so Twain imagined him: a wily rube, cynical toward the same refinements of Europe that inspired awe in him.
—Caity Weaver, The Atlantic, 5 June 2025
The rubes in the trad lobby have been snookered—though their final betrayal is yet to come.
—Ian Volner, Artforum, 28 May 2025
Bradford sends her off to Alaska, instructing her on how to manipulate Frank, who everybody assumes is a rube.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for rube
Chris Roemer, Baltimore Sun, 26 June 2025
There was no quintessential American, so Twain imagined him: a wily rube, cynical toward the same refinements of Europe that inspired awe in him.
—Caity Weaver, The Atlantic, 5 June 2025
The rubes in the trad lobby have been snookered—though their final betrayal is yet to come.
—Ian Volner, Artforum, 28 May 2025
Bradford sends her off to Alaska, instructing her on how to manipulate Frank, who everybody assumes is a rube.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for rube
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rube
Noun
-
When Johnson was vice president and visiting Europe, there were reports filed by these British ambassadors in several countries that basically made fun of him as a hick.—
Wendy Naugle,
USA Today,
14 Apr. 2026
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So a bunch of hicks from Topeka were left up to our own devices of going down to Robert Hall and finding something that might be kind of cool.—
Devon Ivie,
Vulture,
8 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Simply put, the small-town bumpkins from North Florida who support this idea should be made to pay for it.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
18 Feb. 2026
-
Clifton loved motorcycles and, as Hawkins said, was a country bumpkin who loved nature.—
Craig Shoup,
Nashville Tennessean,
21 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Grotesque sea hags, killer clowns, demonic self-help books and more plague the town and its mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys).—
Erik Kain,
Forbes.com,
29 May 2026
-
His near-daily press conferences are just part of a traveling, partisan clown show.—
Scott Maxwell,
Sun Sentinel,
28 May 2026
Noun
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It was left to the feds in Boston to arrest Farwell, after Meatball’s local yokels adamantly refused to do anything other than try to broom the crime by one of their own.—
Howie Carr,
Boston Herald,
26 Apr. 2026
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Part of his way of taking it yokel — besides bringing in Foo Fighter Rami Jaffee on accordion and Willie Aron blowing harmonica — was to add a previously unheard yodel to the chorus.—
Chris Willman,
Variety,
27 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Using his Hollywood makeup father’s prosthetics, Holliday transforms himself into hayseed-like Chad Powers.—
Baz Bamigboye,
Deadline,
30 Sep. 2025
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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
Noun
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That moniker comes from a violent 1967 peasant uprising against oppressive landlords in Naxalbari, a village in the shadow of the Himalayan foothills in northeast India.—
Dhruv Tikekar,
CNN Money,
30 May 2026
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Yet for critics of this militarized approach, the army has done less to tame rebellions than to terrorize the island’s peasant communities.—
Patrick Peralta,
The Conversation,
28 May 2026
Noun
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Marlowe, the son of a poor Canterbury cobbler, and Shakespeare, the son of a Stratford glover and alderman, were both unlikely artistic geniuses, provincials in a nation in which social class was rigidly fixed.—
Heller McAlpin,
Christian Science Monitor,
10 Sep. 2025
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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
Cite this Entry
“Rube.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rube. Accessed 7 Jun. 2026.
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