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# thug

«thug» in Mova's school dictionary: **a violent, rough person, especially a criminal who hurts…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a thug, thugs)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A thug is a violent, rough person, especially a criminal who hurts people. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thug/#m1)

2) (informal) People sometimes call someone a thug if they behave in a bullying, aggressive way. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thug/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In news, stories and police dramas, thugs are attackers, muggers or troublemakers. In sport, a player who fouls roughly may be called a thug by fans. Phrases: «a gang of thugs», «a hired thug», «act like a thug», «thuggish».

### examples

- A gang of thugs smashed the shop windows. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thug/#x1)
- The newspaper called the attackers cowardly thugs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thug/#x2)
- Don't act like a thug just because you're bigger. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thug/#x3)
- The thug was caught on camera and arrested. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thug/#x4)
- The fans called the defender a thug after the foul. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thug/#x5)
- In the film, the boss sent two thugs to frighten the shopkeeper. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thug/#x6)

### note

Countable noun; a strong, insulting word. Adjective: thuggish; behaviour: thuggery. Calling a person a thug is name-calling; it is better to describe what they did.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «thug» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thug/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.