HOODLUM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hoodlum mean? 

• HOODLUM (noun)
  The noun HOODLUM has 1 sense:

1. an aggressive and violent young criminal

  Familiarity information: HOODLUM used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HOODLUM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An aggressive and violent young criminal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

goon; hood; hoodlum; punk; strong-armer; thug; tough; toughie

Hypernyms ("hoodlum" is a kind of...):

criminal; crook; felon; malefactor; outlaw (someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hoodlum"):

bully (a hired thug)

 Context examples 

And often, at such times, he would abruptly see slouch in among the company a young hoodlum in square-cut coat and under a stiff-rim Stetson hat.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Mart Eden, the hoodlum, and Mart Eden, the sailor, had been real, had been he; but Martin Eden! the famous writer, did not exist.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

This figure, of the corner hoodlum, he saw merge into himself, sitting and talking with an actual university professor.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

At one time in his life he had been just a common hoodlum, the leader of a gang that worried the police and terrorized honest, working-class householders.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Martin Eden, the famous writer, was a vapor that had arisen in the mob-mind and by the mob-mind had been thrust into the corporeal being of Mart Eden, the hoodlum and sailor.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Martin watched him and saw the stiff-rim, the square-cut, double-breasted coat and the swaggering shoulders, of the youthful hoodlum who had once been he.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

As he rose from his chair and stepped forward across the platform, he saw stalk through the wide door at the rear of the great room the young hoodlum with the square-cut coat and stiff-rim hat.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He saw himself when he had been quite the hoodlum, wearing a "stiff-rim" Stetson hat and a square-cut, double-breasted coat, with a certain swagger to the shoulders and possessing the ideal of being as tough as the police permitted.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)