hooligan
/ˈhuːlɪɡ(ə)n
/noun
A violent young troublemaker, typically one of a gang: a drunken hooligan [as modifier]: hooligan behaviour...
- Residents are being driven out of their homes by young yobs and hooligans who are making their lives a misery.
- There was nothing unusual about any of this and no doubt the hooligan gangs of both clubs were eager for more trouble after the game.
- Officers have been given the go-ahead to impose curfews and exclusion zones on young hooligans.
Synonyms
hoodlum, thug, lout, delinquent, tearaway, vandal, ruffian, rowdy, troublemaker;
Australian/New Zealand larrikin
informal tough, rough, bruiser, roughneck
British informal yob, yobbo, bovver boy, lager lout, chav, hoodie
Scottish & Northern English informal keelie, ned
Australian/New Zealand informal roughie, hoon
Origin
Late 19th century: perhaps from Hooligan, the surname of a fictional rowdy Irish family in a music-hall song of the 1890s, also of a cartoon character.
The Hooligans were a fictional rowdy Irish family in a music hall song of the 1890s, and a comic Irish character called Hooligan appeared in a series of adventures in the magazine Funny Folks. One or other may have given their name to the hooligan, a phenomenon who made his debut in newspaper reports of cases in police courts in 1898. The football hooligan is first mentioned in the mid 1960s. See also thug, vandal