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Antonyms for thug

Grammar : Noun
Spell : thuhg
Phonetic Transcription : θʌg


Definition of thug

Origin :
  • 1810, "member of a gang of murderers and robbers in India who strangled their victims," from Marathi thag, thak "cheat, swindler," Hindi thag, perhaps from Sanskrit sthaga-s "cunning, fraudulent," possibly from sthagayati "(he) covers, conceals," from PIE root *(s)teg- "cover" (see stegosaurus). Transferred sense of "ruffian, cutthroat" first recorded 1839. The more correct Indian name is phanseegur, and the activity was described in English as far back as c.1665. Rigorously prosecuted by the British from 1831, they were driven from existence, but the process extended over the rest of the 19c.
  • noun hoodlum
Example sentences :
  • I'm going to catch this thug and I'll tell you how I'll do it.
  • Extract from : « The Misplaced Battleship » by Harry Harrison (AKA Henry Maxwell Dempsey)
  • His fist hit the thug in the elbow, just as the man's hand reached for his knife.
  • Extract from : « Police Your Planet » by Lester del Rey
  • About every day I have to send for the sheriff and have some thug arrested.
  • Extract from : « The Best Short Stories of 1917 » by Various
  • Of course it seemed ridiculous that a Thug should strangle the old man.
  • Extract from : « The Opal Serpent » by Fergus Hume
  • He had changed from a thug into a determined, ambitious man.
  • Extract from : « The Destroyers » by Gordon Randall Garrett
  • Some of the Thug leaders of Oude were noted for their successful careers.
  • Extract from : « Following the Equator, Complete » by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
  • And yet one of these people is a Thug and the other a mother of Thugs!
  • Extract from : « Following the Equator, Complete » by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
  • It may be that the leader is neither thief nor thug, but ambitious.
  • Extract from : « The Battle with the Slum » by Jacob A. Riis.
  • That villa was the one thing needed when the thug made a bee-line for the farm.
  • Extract from : « Number Seventeen » by Louis Tracy
  • Both were striking instances, but the Thug's particularly so.
  • Extract from : « Confessions of a Thug » by Philip Meadows Taylor

Synonyms for thug

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019