rambunctious
adjective
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Rambunctious first appeared in print in the early half of the 19th century, at a time when the fast-growing United States was forging its identity and indulging in a fashion for colorful new coinages suggestive of the young nation's optimism and exuberance. Rip-roaring, scalawag, scrumptious, hornswoggle, and skedaddle are other examples of the lively language of that era. Did Americans alter the largely British rumbustious because it sounded, well, British? That could be. Rumbustious, which first appeared in Britain in the late 1700s just after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was probably based on robustious, a much older adjective meaning both "robust" and "boisterous."
Examples of rambunctious in a Sentence
Ruxandra Iordache, CNBC, 23 July 2025
Zeke, on the other hand, is a younger, smaller, more rambunctious type, with a tendency to scale valleys and other parts of the habitat he's not supposed to venture into.
—Grace Tucker, The Enquirer, 23 July 2025
The doll got so rambunctious during the ride to the Warren’s home in Monroe from an investigation site, that Ed Warren had to sprinkle her with holy water, the late Lorraine Warren has said.
—Pamela McLoughlin, Hartford Courant, 15 July 2025
But this new version of Krypto is both very powerful and very rambunctious, and Superman has trouble training him, much to the amusement of Superman’s peers like Batman.
—Daniel Dockery, Vulture, 11 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for rambunctious
Cite this Entry
“Rambunctious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rambunctious. Accessed 3 Aug. 2025.
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rambunctious
adjective
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