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¹rogue

noun \ˈrōg\

: a man who is dishonest or immoral

: a man who causes trouble in a playful way

Full Definition of ROGUE

: vagrant, tramp

: a dishonest or worthless person : scoundrel

: a mischievous person : scamp

: a horse inclined to shirk or misbehave

: an individual exhibiting a chance and usually inferior biological variation

— rogu·ish \ˈrō-gish\ adjective

— rogu·ish·ly adverb

— rogu·ish·ness noun

See rogue defined for English-language learners

See rogue defined for kids

Examples of ROGUE

Many of the vagabonds were rogues and cheaters of various kinds, and formed a subcommunity on the fringes of official society. —Charles Barber, Early Modern English, 1976
Cartier decided that the two boys were a choice pair of rogues who would probably try to run him aground if taken as pilots, and that he would dispense with their services. —Samuel Eliot Morison, The European Discovery of America, 1971
His account of their discoveries in the low life of a seaport town would have made a charming book, and in the various characters that came their way the student might easily have found matter for a very complete dictionary of rogues. —W. Somerset Maugham, Moon and Sixpence, 1919
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Origin of ROGUE

origin unknown

First Known Use: 1561

Related to ROGUE

Synonyms: baddie (or baddy), beast, brute, caitiff, devil, evildoer, fiend, heavy, hound, knave, meanie (also meany), miscreant, monster, nazi, no-good, rapscallion, rascal, reprobate, villain, savage, scalawag (or scallywag), scamp, scapegrace, scoundrel, varlet, wretch

Rhymes with ROGUE

brogue, drogue, togue, vogue, yogh

²rogue

verb \ˈrōg\

roguedrogu·ing or rogue·ing

Definition of ROGUE

intransitive verb

: to weed out inferior, diseased, or nontypical individuals from a crop plant or a field

Origin of ROGUE

(see ¹rogue)

First Known Use: 1766

Other Agriculture/Gardening Terms

fallow, graft, heirloom, loam, potash, soilage, swath, tilth, windfall

³rogue

adjective \ˈrōg\

—used to describe something or someone that is different from others in usually a dangerous or harmful way

Full Definition of ROGUE

: resembling or suggesting a rogue elephant especially in being isolated, aberrant, dangerous, or uncontrollable <capsized by a rogue wave>

: corrupt, dishonest <rogue cops>

: of or being a nation whose leaders defy international law or norms of international behavior <rogue states>

See rogue defined for English-language learners

Examples of ROGUE

Americans assume that our country was built by rogue males but there's more to the breed than wanderlust and rugged individualism. —Florence King, National Review, 27 Aug. 2007
Perhaps more important, defense planners worried for the past year about the instability of the Soviet Union and the nightmare that a rogue Soviet submarine skipper might decide on his own to launch close to 200 warheads at U.S. targets. —John Barry, Newsweek, 3 June 1991
In “The In-Laws,” Alan Arkin is a dentist led astray by a rogue C.I.A. operative … , whose son his daughter is marrying, and he winds up dodging bullets on a Caribbean island. —Terrence Rafferty, New Yorker, 30 July 1990
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