as in thug
a violent, brutal person who is often a member of an organized gang
the complaint that English football has been taken over by the yobs, who make the stadiums unfit for families
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of yob
There’s certainly little warmth surrounding the past here, beginning with an eerie, cryptic prologue, set in 1973, that sees a rural wedding crashed by yobs in sinister, medieval-looking straw masks, followed by yellowing newspaper headlines that puzzle over the bride’s subsequent disappearance.
—
Guy Lodge, Variety, 13 Aug. 2024
Johnson has more to worry about than just random yobs disrupting the call.
—Mark Hachman, PCWorld, 31 Mar. 2020
After the yobs fled, the Sun reported, Cumberbatch hugged the deliveryman from Deliveroo, a U.K. food-delivery service.
—The Washington Post, NOLA.com, 2 June 2018
But these folk will not be your random yobs brought in to gawp.
—William Booth, Washington Post, 2 Mar. 2018
Guy Lodge, Variety, 13 Aug. 2024
Johnson has more to worry about than just random yobs disrupting the call.
—Mark Hachman, PCWorld, 31 Mar. 2020
After the yobs fled, the Sun reported, Cumberbatch hugged the deliveryman from Deliveroo, a U.K. food-delivery service.
—The Washington Post, NOLA.com, 2 June 2018
But these folk will not be your random yobs brought in to gawp.
—William Booth, Washington Post, 2 Mar. 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for yob
Noun
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The thugs would insinuate themselves into the confidence of wayfarers and, when a favorable opportunity presented itself, strangle them by throwing a handkerchief or noose around their necks.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
31 Mar. 2026
-
No government masked thugs shooting down our neighbors in the streets.—
Diego Parrado,
Vanity Fair,
29 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Göring, played by Russell Crowe, is the troubling centerpiece of James Vanderbilt’s ambitious film devoted to the trial of the major Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg in 1945–1946.—
Alice Kaplan,
The New York Review of Books,
4 Apr. 2026
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Also included is a 13% increase in funding for the Department of Justice to focus on violent criminals and a $481 million increase in funding to enhance aviation safety and support an air traffic controller hiring surge.—
LISA MASCARO,
Arkansas Online,
4 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The child was speaking like a baby gangster, yet earnestly.—
Catherine Lacey,
New Yorker,
5 Apr. 2026
-
They get captured by Hungarian gangsters and have to fight (and kill) their way out of an inn run by a shady former dance prodigy (Uma Thurman).—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
4 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Then there’s Haim, so full of venom and vitriol, who depending on one’s perspective is low-key the hero or villain of the film.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
31 Mar. 2026
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Javier Bardem’s Oscar-winning performance as Anton Chigurh in the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men remains an iconic villain turn 20 years later.—
Jason P. Frank,
Vulture,
31 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Yob.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/yob. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
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