as in thug
a violent, brutal person who is often a member of an organized gang
a gang of ruffians preying upon people who ventured into that section of town
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of ruffian
Troy Stecher is a puck-mover with some two-way ability but is not considered a ruffian in the corners and in front of the net.
—
Allan Mitchell, The Athletic, 9 Aug. 2024
And then there was Post Malone, the rapping, rocking everyman who has replaced Kid Rock as America’s favorite ruffian.
—Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone, 17 May 2024
Read More: Fans React to Beyoncé's New Album Cowboy Carter
Once seen as ruffians and pushed to the outskirts of Victorian society, cowboys were reinvented as rugged cultural heroes in the American consciousness in the early 20th century through dime novels, rodeos, movies, and more.
—TIME, 12 Apr. 2024
The building, erected in 1915 as the Rieger Hotel, served traveling salesmen, railroad ruffians and gangsters in the early 20th Century.
—David Hudnall, Kansas City Star, 11 Apr. 2024
See All Example Sentences for ruffian
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ruffian
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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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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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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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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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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These oil fields basically are pirate operations.—
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Notorious pirate Jean Lafitte frequented neighboring Grand Terre Island in the early 1800s.—
Noun
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Though detectives conclude that assassin cult members Ash (Jon Pointing) and Dee Dee (Maeve Courtier-Lilley) were the ones who killed Aaron, Paige revealed that the real killer was Ingrid.—
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Maduro is being held in the same federal jail in Brooklyn as accused assassin Luigi Mangione.—
Noun
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The inside of the bag was filled with trash, signaling that a thief must have left this behind and taken my bag on purpose at another stop.—
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On Sunday, San Jose police were on the scene at Macy’s within minutes, but the thieves had already fled.—
Cite this Entry
“Ruffian.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ruffian. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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