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
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Which is to say, this isn’t the story of a greedy, materialistic man who suffers a crisis of conscience while trying to pry a priceless treasure away from an uneducated hick who doesn’t know any better.—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
29 Oct. 2025
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Ricky develops romantic feelings for Chad even though Russ plays him as a soft-spoken, possibly dim rural hick who may well be a literal man-child.—
Nicholas Quah,
Vulture,
29 Sep. 2025
Noun
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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
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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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Three years have passed since the stadium-sized clown show of the duo’s last record, 10,000 gecs, and Brady’s been feverishly cooking up unlikely collaborations and solo material.—
Kieran Press-Reynolds,
Pitchfork,
27 Mar. 2026
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Christopher Kosakowski, United States, 2025 A circus clown celebrating his birthday alone receives a mysterious gift box harboring an antique zoetrope that spins his world into mayhem.—
William Earl,
Variety,
25 Mar. 2026
Noun
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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
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It was adapted into a huge hit movie starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, but the breakout characters were local yokels Ma and Pa Kettle, who went on to star in eight spinoff movies.—
Brian Boone,
Vulture,
18 June 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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Between them sat a peasant with matted hair and a padded coat over his shoulders.—
Cassandra Neyenesch,
New Yorker,
29 Mar. 2026
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The split widens when a labor strike becomes an armed revolt, with Jacir gamely tracking the hardening or shifting loyalties of both her peasant and well-to-do characters.—
Robert Abele,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Mar. 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 4 Apr. 2026.
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