Dictionary

thuggish en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈθʌɡɪʃ/

Etymology

Etymology tree English thug Proto-Indo-European *-iskos Proto-Germanic *-iskaz Proto-West Germanic *-isk Old English -isċ Middle English -isch English -ish English thuggish From thug + -ish.

Meanings

1. (derogatory) Characterized by thuggery; behaving in a violent or intimidating way; appearing to be violent or intimidating.
   • They were a motley collection; a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty. 2005 July 16, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], chapter 17, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter; 6), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, pages 361-362:
   • It is there in the rabid ideology underpinning Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) thuggish assault on immigrants in Minneapolis. 2026 January 21, David Smith, “Trump paints himself as great white hope in racism-drenched Davos speech”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 05 Mar 2026:
   • He said gardaí had responded professionally to “thuggish violence” in the area and those arrested would be “charged, named and dealt with relentlessly” by the criminal justice system. 2025 October 22, Jim O'Callaghan, quotee, “Second night of unrest in Dublin as protesters target asylum hotel”, in The Guardian, sourced from P. A. Media, →ISSN, archived from the original on 06 Dec 2025:
   • Their thuggish manner made continuing negotiations very difficult.
   • We were Jews—and not only were we not inferior to the goyim who beat us at football, but the chances were that because we could not commit our hearts to victory in such a thuggish game, we were superior! 1969, Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint, New York: Vintage, published 1994, The Jewish Blues, page 56:
2. (obsolete) Resembling or characteristic of the assassins known as thugs or thuggees (often capitalized in this sense).
   • There are not wanting in this Christian land The breast remorseless and the Thuggish hand, 1871, Alfred Austin, The Golden Age: A Satire, London: Chapman and Hall, page 70:
   • Occasionally you might have beheld us chasing up scores of Dorkings,—which had been our admiration for the twelvemonth, and massacreing them remorselessly for the public good: our turkeys and geese, too, were in continual jeopardy of their lives. But,—these Thuggish propensities notwithstanding, we took a paternal interest in our feathered family. 1859, anonymous author, Brook Farm: The Amusing and Memorable of American Country Life, London: MacIntosh and Hunt, page 113:
   • […] beside the deceitfulness of the heart and the carnality common to all men, the deep ignorance of the heathen, the abjectness of their social condition, their vain but venerated traditions, their time-honored customs of profligacy, impelling to infanticide, parricide, Thuggish murders, and cannibalism—all conflict steadily with the holiest efforts to transform them into symmetrical Christians. 1840, Nathan S. S. Beman, The Gospel Adapted to the Wants of the World: A Sermon, preached in Providence, R. I., Sept. 9, 1840, Boston: Crocker and Brewster, page 36:

Forms

Deriveds

thuggishness · thuggishly · unthuggish

Translations (5)

fr violent (Translations) · fi kovanaamainen (Translations) · pl bandycki (Translations) · fr brutal (Translations) · pl chuligański (Translations)