as in hick
an awkward or simple person especially from a small town or the country
rural voters were tired of being treated as rubes by state officials, who showed interest in them only at election time
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Recent Examples of rube
Like master poker players sitting at a table with rubes, Wall Street’s quants and algorithmic traders like Citadel not only profit from Robinhood's customers' trades, but use the large amount of retail trading data from these purchases to anticipate market moves and profit.
—
Javier Paz, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2025
Well, the rubes just elected Donald Trump president.
—Chris Roemer, Baltimore Sun, 8 Nov. 2024
That’s easy: a rube, chump, or mark, whose naive optimism sets them up for betrayal.
—Jamil Zaki, TIME, 3 Sep. 2024
Sometimes, the film’s examination of excess can simply be excessive, but The Wolf of Wall Street is hypnotizing — and a damning condemnation of us poor rubes.
—Will Leitch, Vulture, 8 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for rube
Javier Paz, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2025
Well, the rubes just elected Donald Trump president.
—Chris Roemer, Baltimore Sun, 8 Nov. 2024
That’s easy: a rube, chump, or mark, whose naive optimism sets them up for betrayal.
—Jamil Zaki, TIME, 3 Sep. 2024
Sometimes, the film’s examination of excess can simply be excessive, but The Wolf of Wall Street is hypnotizing — and a damning condemnation of us poor rubes.
—Will Leitch, Vulture, 8 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for rube
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rube
Noun
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Sorrentino may also be exorcising some conflicting feelings about his birthplace, which is portrayed as a vulgar, crude place populated by crooks and hicks and photographed like its paradise.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
7 Feb. 2025
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In first grade, when a teacher called him a hick, Ciotti threw an inkwell at her.—
D. T. Max,
The New Yorker,
23 Sep. 2024
Noun
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Going to the Ron Burgundy–Ricky Bobby idiot well one time too many, Ferrell plays Cam Brady, a lazy, cynical longtime congressman running against a local bumpkin (Galifianakis).—
Tim Grierson,
Vulture,
4 Feb. 2025
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Carter, perhaps the most decent man to ever occupy the Oval Office, was long written off as a country bumpkin, one who perhaps unsurprisingly left office as a one-term anomaly.—
Philip Elliott,
TIME,
9 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Fans can also look forward to performances by the iconic Silver Spurs Quadrille, the adorable antics of kids competing in Mutton Bustin’, and plenty of laughs courtesy of the ever-entertaining rodeo clowns.—
Joe Rassel,
The Orlando Sentinel,
28 May 2025
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His wife, Susan, a sweet woman with short grey hair, worked as a dental hygienist and performed as a clown named Jubilee at hospitals, nursing homes, parties — even the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.—
Jennifer Berry Hawes,
ProPublica,
19 May 2025
Noun
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Florida yokels versus the elite Hollywood movie-star kind of group.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
21 May 2025
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Much of the show's cast will be forever remembered as TV's favorite millionaire yokels, but The Beverly Hillbillies certainly didn't mark the end of their careers.—
John Russell,
People.com,
11 May 2025
Noun
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Baby Billy’s first full-frontal scene is more a testament to Walton Goggins’s incredible hayseed bravado in the rule.—
Scott Tobias,
Vulture,
31 Mar. 2025
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Mantle was the voluble hayseed from Oklahoma who could hit anything but was corrupted by the big city, and wound up undone by alcohol and knee injuries.—
Adam Gopnik,
The New Yorker,
21 June 2024
Noun
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Set between the late 1930s and 1954, the movie retells the Algerian War of Independence through the eyes of a peasant farmer, exploring the roots of the movement and depicting the harshness of French colonial rule.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
28 May 2025
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Part 2: fifteen years later, while fleeing Petrograd, Nabokov’s father is accosted on a bridge by a gray-bearded peasant, who asks for a light and proves to be Kuropatkin in disguise.—
Elif Batuman,
New Yorker,
1 June 2025
Noun
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Sanders is a Catholic priest and former Augustinian provincial in California and lives in the Augustinian community in North Park.—
Gary Sanders,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
14 May 2025
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Not long after his ordination, he was named the Jesuit provincial for Argentina, which put him in charge of the order’s activities throughout the country.—
Carlos De Loera,
Los Angeles Times,
21 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Rube.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rube. Accessed 19 Jun. 2025.
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