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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Recent Examples of rube
There’s a certain kind of theater parody made by theater people, where the characters are either provincial rubes or name-dropping, Olivier-quoting grandees of their local scene, and theater is made out to be a kind of small-town cult for the flamboyantly uncool.
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Vulture Staff, Vulture, 20 Oct. 2023
Baron Cohen’s most famous creation, Borat, may be the most intricate of all Jewish masquerades: an English Jew disguised as a Central Asian rube, who speaks Hebrew disguised as Kazakh, while staging outrageous antisemitic stunts that expose, and mock, society’s latent Jew hatred.
—Jody Rosen, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2023
This is part of the GOP's plot to keep the rubes enflamed while the party continues to cut taxes for the billionaires and sets its sights on Social Security and Medicare.
—Randy Dotinga, Washington Post, 24 June 2023
Ominously for Team Fisher, those rubes in Vegas are starting to not buy the bullcorn.
—Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 6 May 2023
See all Example Sentences for rube 
Vulture Staff, Vulture, 20 Oct. 2023
Baron Cohen’s most famous creation, Borat, may be the most intricate of all Jewish masquerades: an English Jew disguised as a Central Asian rube, who speaks Hebrew disguised as Kazakh, while staging outrageous antisemitic stunts that expose, and mock, society’s latent Jew hatred.
—Jody Rosen, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2023
This is part of the GOP's plot to keep the rubes enflamed while the party continues to cut taxes for the billionaires and sets its sights on Social Security and Medicare.
—Randy Dotinga, Washington Post, 24 June 2023
Ominously for Team Fisher, those rubes in Vegas are starting to not buy the bullcorn.
—Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 6 May 2023
See all Example Sentences for rube
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rube
Noun
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In first grade, when a teacher called him a hick, Ciotti threw an inkwell at her.D. T. Max, The New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2024
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In the special, taped at Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV, Kober brings audiences together with stories about dealing with hometown hicks, unforgiving fruit flies and California candy cartels.Matt Grobar, Deadline, 25 June 2024
Noun
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Emily in Paris On Location: Hotel Plaza Athénée Paris Rediscover Paris as Chicago bumpkin Emily (played by Lily Collins) moves there for a job and takes you to places like Galeries Lafayette, Galerie-Musee Baccarat and Hotel Plaza Athénée Paris.Forbes Travel Guide, Forbes, 14 Sep. 2024
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At their worst, these histories, like the Soviet one, reduce Ukrainians to lazy, irresponsible, prejudiced country bumpkins with exaggerated penchants for vodka and violence.Alexander J. Motyl, Foreign Affairs, 4 Aug. 2016
Noun
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It Chapter Two is down to clown, again — in a bloody, silly, overwrought sequel Moving down the tension scale to thrillers, Netflix is offloading a few particularly popular titles.Ryan Coleman, EW.com, 2 Nov. 2024
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An 8-year-old girl fought back against an attacker wearing a clown mask who is accused of assaulting her in her bedroom earlier this month, police said.Louis Casiano, Fox News, 23 Oct. 2024
Noun
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Florida yokels versus the elite Hollywood movie-star kind of group.Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 26 July 2024
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Ben’s refusal to stand down for a middle-aged white man seeking to wrest power from him was radical, as was the film’s ending, in which the hero was shot by yokels failing to distinguish him from the zombies previously described as animals.Richard Newby, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Oct. 2024
Noun
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Mantle was the voluble hayseed from Oklahoma who could hit anything but was corrupted by the big city, and wound up undone by alcohol and knee injuries.Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 21 June 2024
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Today, the variety shows’ wise-clown hayseeds (overalls, prosthetic teeth, silly hats, no shoes) are the ones who get all the good lines, whose material is distinctive in its political sensibility and cultural hobbyhorses.Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper's Magazine, 30 Mar. 2024
Noun
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That means dressing up as a knight, king, queen, lord or lady, maybe even a peasant or fairy.Ashley Mahoney, Axios, 2 Oct. 2024
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An estimated 20,000 people swarmed the 1378 conclave in Rome to make their opinion known, including peasants who traveled from the countryside.Olivia B. Waxman, TIME, 25 Oct. 2024
Noun
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The gilets jaunes protests, a largely peri-urban phenomenon, inverted the roles played by Parisians and provincials in 1871.Robert Zaretsky, Foreign Affairs, 30 Mar. 2021
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Until recently, attendees at such a talk would have seen themselves as mere provincials gathering to hear a report from the great halls of power in London and Washington.Jonathan Kay, Foreign Affairs, 15 Aug. 2017
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Cite this Entry
“Rube.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rube. Accessed 23 Nov. 2024.
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