Meaning & use
hooligan
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Meanings
nouncountabledisapproving
A person, often one of a rowdy group, who behaves violently or destructively in public, especially while smashing property or fighting.
Grammar: Often plural when a gang is meant: the hooligans broke windows.
Patterns
- a gang of hooligans
- hooligans attack something
A few hooligans smashed the bus shelter on the way home from the pub.
Police arrested several hooligans after the street fight.
The headmaster called the boys hooligans for wrecking the garden.
nouncountablesportdisapproving
A fan who causes violence and disorder at or around a sports event, especially a football match.
Grammar: Often appears in football hooligan; the group is called hooligans.
Patterns
- football hooligan
- hooligans clash with police
Football hooligans threw bottles at the visiting supporters.
The club banned two hooligans from every home match.
Extra police were sent to keep hooligans away from the stadium.
Word forms
| plural | hooligans |
|---|
Common combinations
- football hooligan
- The football hooligan was banned from the stadium for three years.
- drunken hooligans
- Drunken hooligans overturned bins along the high street.
- gang of hooligans
- A gang of hooligans spray-painted the school wall.
- hooligan behaviour
- The council condemned the hooligan behaviour at the fair.
- crack down on hooligans
- The league promised to crack down on hooligans.
Synonyms and how they differ
- thug
- Thug stresses brutality toward people and is not tied to sports or to rowdy group behavior.
- vandal
- Vandal focuses only on wrecking property, whereas a hooligan may also fight people.
- yob
- Yob is a British slang word for a rude, aggressive young man and is more casual and insulting than hooligan.
- rowdy
- Rowdy is used as an adjective or noun for noisy, disorderly people and implies less serious violence.
Opposites
Word family
- hooliganism noun
- violent or destructive behavior by hooligans
- hooligan adjective
- used before a noun to describe such behavior, as in hooligan elements
Commonly confused: hooligan or hoodlum?
hooligan vs hoodlum
A hoodlum is mainly American and suggests a petty criminal or gang member, while hooligan is more British and suggests disorderly, rowdy behavior.
Practice
After the match, a group of ___ threw chairs through a cafe window.
Choose one answer.
Only hooligans fits behavior that is violent and destructive. The other choices describe people who would not normally throw chairs through a window.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hooligan”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.