Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Disorderly; rough.
  • noun A rough, disorderly person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A riotous, turbulent fellow; a person given to quarreling and fighting; a rough.
  • Having the characteristics of a rowdy; given to rowdyism; rough; coarse-grained; disreputable.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who engages in rows, or noisy quarrels; a ruffianly fellow.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective rough and disorderly; riotous or just boisterous
  • noun A boisterous person; a brawler.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a cruel and brutal fellow
  • adjective disturbing the public peace; loud and rough

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably from row.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Possibly from row ("noisy argument")

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Examples

  • In fact, he's apologized for what he calls his rowdy, playful behavior, saying it was a mistake.

    CNN Transcript Oct 5, 2003 2003

  • "Charlie was rowdy from the beginning like he had been drinking prior."

    Denise Richards Met Charlie Sheen's Hooker: Report Katy Hall 2010

  • "Charlie was rowdy from the beginning like he had been drinking prior."

    Denise Richards Met Charlie Sheen's Hooker: Report Katy Hall 2010

  • Only place i've ever seen a tasting room get a little rowdy is Pindar, but that's because it's so damn big it's more like a bar.

    Idiots in Tasting Rooms 2007

  • They ruled themselves democratically, electing chieftains in rowdy, informal village assemblies known as krugi ( "circles").

    Russia's Holy Warriors 2005

  • They ruled themselves democratically, electing chieftains in rowdy, informal village assemblies known as krugi ( "circles").

    Russia's Holy Warriors 2005

  • They ruled themselves democratically, electing chieftains in rowdy, informal village assemblies known as krugi ( "circles").

    Russia's Holy Warriors 2005

  • That's why even the fiends on Fox instinctiv­ely cringed when Williams skipped past the carefully managed Tea Party linguistic jujitsu and got to the point: Obama is the enemy of Hank Williams Jr. and the like-minde ­d people he describes as his "rowdy" friends.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com The Huffington Post News Editors 2011

  • Campbell was described as a "rowdy and abusive" passenger who at one point warned that he would "off people when they left the plane," according to the Crown prosecutor.

    CBC | Top Stories News 2011

  • Nick Benecke and his friends and fellow students at Nashua North said they had never witnessed the fever pitch - calling it "rowdy" - that protesters and supporters reached when Obama rode through.

    Nashuatelegraph.com: Breaking News | Web Feeds 2010

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