as in thug
a violent, brutal person who is often a member of an organized gang
London bobbies clearing the streets of hooligans
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of hooligan
On Wednesday, a Dortmund bar came under attack by Dutch hooligans, with the intention seemingly being to steal a St George flag.
—
Richard Sutcliffe, The Athletic, 13 July 2024
Some have focused their anger on the community after some of the hooligans who attacked Israelis could be heard in videos of the attacks speaking Moroccan Arabic and Berber languages native to Morocco.
—Freddie Clayton, NBC News, 18 Nov. 2024
There were also Amsterdam residents who were attacked by Maccabi hooligans.
—Canaan Lidor, Sun Sentinel, 14 Nov. 2024
Banning orders — whereby passports have to be handed in before any England fixture abroad — have also been used to keep the hooligans away, while the Football Association insist tickets are only sold through the official supporters travel club.
—Richard Sutcliffe, The Athletic, 13 July 2024
See All Example Sentences for hooligan
Richard Sutcliffe, The Athletic, 13 July 2024
Some have focused their anger on the community after some of the hooligans who attacked Israelis could be heard in videos of the attacks speaking Moroccan Arabic and Berber languages native to Morocco.
—Freddie Clayton, NBC News, 18 Nov. 2024
There were also Amsterdam residents who were attacked by Maccabi hooligans.
—Canaan Lidor, Sun Sentinel, 14 Nov. 2024
Banning orders — whereby passports have to be handed in before any England fixture abroad — have also been used to keep the hooligans away, while the Football Association insist tickets are only sold through the official supporters travel club.
—Richard Sutcliffe, The Athletic, 13 July 2024
See All Example Sentences for hooligan
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hooligan
Noun
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Image In so many ways, Jan. 6 had become part of his brand — a brand in which an attack on the symbol of American democracy became a defense of that same democracy: a blow against political thugs and closet communists, deep-state plots and an unjust justice system.—
Dan Barry,
New York Times,
5 Jan. 2025
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The investigation leads Cole into an ugly world of red-neck thugs and disappeared girls.—
Sandra Dallas,
The Denver Post,
2 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Williamson spends the entire movie moving from one L.A. locale and subculture to another, meeting a motley crew of criminals rich, scrappy, and everything in between, along the way.—
Jim Hemphill,
IndieWire,
24 Feb. 2025
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Might be important later: the criminal was able to gain entrance to the White Lotus property when Valentin pulls up on his motorcycle to the security gate to chat with Gaitok, at the exact moment a random SUV containing the thief sails through.—
Dan Heching,
CNN,
24 Feb. 2025
Noun
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In her ethnographic study of Jamaican gangs, Jaffe argues against seeing the neighborhood strongmen—or dons—as primarily violent, exploitative gangsters.—
Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Affairs,
25 Feb. 2025
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Lives are literally on the line in Vivian Qu’s genre hybrid Girls on Wire, a surprisingly gritty study of people left behind or living in the margins that fuses gangster realism with social drama and leavens both with a dash of unexpected humor.—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
18 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Robbery by bandits and natural disasters posed constant threats.—
Abdo Riani,
Forbes,
23 Jan. 2025
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Those who bought Amazon in 1998, for example, or Tesla in 2012, or Nvidia in 2020 correctly foresaw the respective explosions of online shopping, EVs, and the AI revolution—and made out like bandits.—
Prarthana Prakash,
Fortune,
26 Nov. 2024
Noun
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There are spells, curses, vendettas, a twist villain, giant dragons who turn into humanoid warriors and many other creatures populating the world of this gargantuan feat of eye-popping computer animation.—
Carlos Aguilar,
Variety,
2 Mar. 2025
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Hackman was among the most accomplished actors of his generation, appearing as villains, heroes and antiheroes in dozens of dramas, comedies and action films from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.—
SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN,
arkansasonline.com,
2 Mar. 2025
Noun
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When Jennifer Lawrence isn’t full-frontally beating the bejesus out of insouciant hoodlums, that is.—
Charles Bramesco,
Vulture,
10 Feb. 2025
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However, their dreams are threatened by the hoodlums in the Riverbottom Gang.—
EW.com,
EW.com,
30 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Some of the pirates were already waiting there in speedboats.—
Soham Mitra, Lou Robinson and Patrick Gallagher,
CNN,
22 Feb. 2025
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Ozzy Osbourne could've been a pirate — and wife Sharon still regrets not letting him.—
Marina Watts,
People.com,
19 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Hooligan.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hooligan. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.
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