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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

you people en · NOUN

Meanings

  1. (derogatory, plural, plural-only) Any outsiders not belonging to a clique.
  2. (plural, plural-only) Members of a particular group, collectively.
    • There's a young white woman that I work with now, and she really hasn't worked with a lot of people of color, and she uses the term, 'you people,' and I bring it to her attention. And she's like 'oh, oh', […] 2000, Joe R. Feagin, Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations, page 245:
    • In another incident, presidential candidate Ross Perot ran into trouble in 1992 when addressing the NAACP. He used the phrases like you people and your people when talking about who would suffer the most from economic problems and runaway crime. 2001, Kenneth S. Bordens, Irwin A. Horowitz, Social Psychology, page 120:
    • He said some cleaning compound was missing and he suspects you because you people are always stealing things. 2007, Ed Griffin, Beyond the Vows, page 107:
    • That's what attracts you people, if you don't mind my saying so. "You people" doesn't sound very polite, but I have lived for years out here in the back of beyond, where I have watched you people come in search of answers. 2007, Cees Nooteboom, Susan Massotty, Lost Paradise: A Novel, page 51:
    • That is the type of thing you people would say.
    • He said, I just came back from Guadalcanal. I've been fighting through the jungles. Fighting day and night. But I didn't realize there was a war on until I came back to the United States. And especially tonight. When I came back and I find out that we've now got women Marines, we've got dog Marines, and when I see you people wearing our uniforms, then I know there's a war on. Goddamn. You never saw so many Coke bottles fly. Knocked him down. And there was a riot that night. The first black riot in Marine Corps history. 2006, Raymond M Scurfield, A Vietnam Trilogy, page 75:
  3. (US, dialectal, form-of, plural, plural-only) plural of you
    form of you

Relateds

those people

Synonyms

y'all