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
Today, Nazi political power exists via a disparate array of soccer hooligans, deluded commentators, and criminal gangs of limited power.
—
Tom Rogan, The Washington Examiner, 26 Sep. 2025
The film stars Boon as Tommy, a 19-year-old hooligan who wakes up from an all-night bender in the basement of a strange suburban home, bound with a chain around his neck.
—Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 4 Sep. 2025
The left would be wise to wake up to this fact and start acting with some decorum, instead of like a bunch of power-drunk hooligans.
—Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 24 June 2025
On the same day as the Bradford fire, a spectator was killed during one of the worst hooligan fights at a game between Birmingham and Leeds.
—Richard Sutcliffe, New York Times, 9 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for hooligan
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hooligan
Noun
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Again, Maduro is a socialist thug.—
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This is the underworld that Michlewitz and the rest of his thug pals come out of, and will protect at all costs.—
Noun
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The first thing to do is to reduce the damage to the United States, the inflow of guns and criminals and immigrants and drugs into the United States, the destabilizing of a key part of the Western Hemisphere.—
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Also, place freezes with ChexSystems and the National Consumer Telecom and Utilities Exchange to stop criminals from opening bank accounts, phone lines, or utility services in his name.—
Noun
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Stumpy the gangster, Bev the Mormon.—
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Metrotone Media’s Katharina Gellein Viken, meanwhile, revealed a new micro-drama in the works, a mockumentary about the making of a low-budget British gangster flick.—
Noun
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There can be no doubt that in tax terms, America’s wealthiest families make out like bandits.—
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The robbery lasted less than seven minutes, as the bandits used a truck with an extendable ladder to cut through a window on a second-floor balcony, according to police.—
Noun
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Sorkin finds no heroes but also no villains.—
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But what Ole Miss has had to deal with is beyond the norm, with Kiffin in the villain’s role.—
Noun
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These involve raiding the lairs of hoodlum rivals, then singlehandedly dissuading them from competition.—
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The story, originally conceived by Truffaut, is a thin, desultory affair, about a French hoodlum on the run and his doomed fling with an American expat.—
Noun
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These oil fields basically are pirate operations.—
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Notorious pirate Jean Lafitte frequented neighboring Grand Terre Island in the early 1800s.—
Cite this Entry
“Hooligan.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hooligan. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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