Adjacent Words

rowdy definitions

	Tweet

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: disturbing the public peace; loud and rough; "a raucous party"; "rowdy teenagers" [syn: raucous, rowdy] n
1: a cruel and brutal fellow [syn: bully, tough, hooligan, ruffian, roughneck, rowdy, yob, yobo, yobbo]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective (rowdier; -est) Etymology: perhaps irregular from ⁵row Date: 1819 coarse or boisterous in behavior ; rough; also characterized by such behavior <rowdy local bars> • rowdily adverb • rowdiness noun • rowdyish adjective II. noun (plural rowdies) Date: 1808 a rowdy person ; tough

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. (rowdier, rowdiest) noisy and disorderly. --n. (pl. -ies) a rowdy person. Derivatives: rowdily adv. rowdiness n. rowdyism n. Etymology: 19th-c. US, orig. = lawless backwoodsman: orig. unkn.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rowdy Row"dy, n.; pl. Rowdies. [From Rout, or Row a brawl.] One who engages in rows, or noisy quarrels; a ruffianly fellow. --M. Arnold.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(rowdier, rowdiest) When people are rowdy, they are noisy, rough, and likely to cause trouble. He has complained to the police about rowdy neighbours... = noisy ADJ • rowdiness ...adolescent behaviour like vandalism and rowdiness.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. (Colloq.) Rough, bully, ruffian, coarse fellow. II. a. (Colloq.) 1. Disreputable, blackguard, rough. 2. Flashy, coarsely showy.

Moby Thesaurus

Babbitt, Philistine, arriviste, bad, bad boy, battler, belligerent, belted knight, bickerer, blade, blaring, blatant, blatting, blustering, boisterous, booger, boor, boorish, bounder, bourgeois, brassy, bravo, brawler, brawling, brazen, bucko, buffoon, bugger, bully, bullyboy, cad, carlish, churl, churlish, clamant, clamorous, clamoursome, clanging, clangorous, clattery, cloddish, clown, clownish, combatant, competitor, contender, contestant, cutthroat, cutup, desperado, devil, disorderly, disputant, disruptive, duelist, elf, enfant terrible, enforcer, epicier, fencer, feuder, fighter, fighting cock, foilsman, funmaker, gamecock, gladiator, goon, gorilla, groundling, gunman, guttersnipe, harum-scarum, hatchet man, hell-raiser, hellcat, hood, hoodlum, hooligan, hooliganish, ill-bred fellow, imp, improper, joker, jokester, jouster, killer, knave, knight, knock-down-and-drag-out, knockabout, little devil, little monkey, little rascal, looby, loobyish, loud, lout, loutish, low fellow, lubberly, lumpish, mad dog, mafficking, militant, minx, misbehaving, mischief, mischief-maker, mucker, naughty, noiseful, noisy, not respectable, nouveau riche, obstreperous, off-base, out-of-line, parvenu, peasant, pixie, plug-ugly, practical joker, prankster, puck, punk, quarreler, rackety, raffish, rambunctious, rampageous, rapscallion, rascal, raucous, ribald, rioter, rip-roaring, rival, rogue, roisterous, rollicking, rough, rough-and-tumble, roughneck, rowdyish, ruffian, ruffianly, rumbustious, sabreur, scamp, scapegrace, scrapper, scuffler, skinhead, squabbler, strepitant, strepitous, strong arm, strong-arm man, strong-armer, struggler, swashbuckler, sword, swordplayer, swordsman, termagant, thug, tilter, tough, tumultuous, turbulent, tussler, unbehaving, unruly, uproarious, upstart, vociferous, vulgarian, vulgarist, wag, wild, wrangler, yahoo, yokel, yokelish