How to Use gangster in a Sentence

gangster

noun
  • Al Capone remains one of the most notorious gangsters in American history.
  • Lord, that sounds like gangsters, don’t it.
    — David Searcy, Harpers Magazine, 30 Dec. 2025
  • Only to have a gangster – with a gun!
    — Stephen Schaefer, Boston Herald, 8 Apr. 2026
  • Robert de Niro, no stranger to the gangster epic, takes the lead.
    — Deanna Janes, Harper's BAZAAR, 19 July 2023
  • In two years, gangster rap would explode.
    — Keith Murphy, VIBE.com, 31 Oct. 2025
  • The epic gangster film would not be the same if it were shot anywhere else.
    — Nina Derwin, Redbook, 17 Aug. 2023
  • These were gangsters, so they weren’t obliged to couch this any way but direct.
    — Literary Hub, 6 Nov. 2025
  • There may have been some male suitors but never any who were gangsters.
    — Nathan Smith, Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2026
  • And not your usual gangster series – no shootouts or drug deals.
    — Leo Barraclough, Variety, 14 Jan. 2026
  • Now that the trunk is rattlin', turn it up with some ghoulish gangster grills.
    — Kat Bein, Billboard, 26 Oct. 2017
  • Her gangster pals filled the morgues; her girls were commodities.
    — CBS News, 7 Nov. 2021
  • The rap scene, then steeped in gangster culture, was perilous.
    — Janine Rubenstein, People.com, 3 July 2025
  • Time-travel shenanigans wouldn’t work in just any gangster movie.
    — Brian Truitt, USA Today, 25 Mar. 2026
  • One of those clichés, like a gangster movie from the ‘40s or something.
    — Michael Ruiz, Fox News, 19 Feb. 2021
  • For the consumers of the pulp fiction and gangster movies of the time, none of this was news.
    — Vivian Gornick, The New York Review of Books, 9 Mar. 2021
  • The gangster genre is one of the most enduring in pop culture.
    — Greg Braxton, Los Angeles Times, 22 Nov. 2020
  • Murda is the ticket out for his boys, the gangster with a future.
    — Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 1 Aug. 2022
  • For its part, Hamas says Abu Shabab is a traitor and a gangster.
    — Tim Lister, CNN Money, 8 June 2025
  • The loose-cannon Nick behaves more like the gangsters than a cop.
    — Katie Walsh, Detroit Free Press, 18 Jan. 2018
  • The western tends to be macho fare, akin to the gangster movie in the genre universe.
    — Chris Vognar, Los Angeles Times, 2 Mar. 2022
  • Stumpy the gangster, Bev the Mormon.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 9 Nov. 2025
  • The child was speaking like a baby gangster, yet earnestly.
    — Catherine Lacey, New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2026
  • Locals said that some of the gangsters portrayed in the film were known to drink at Neir’s.
    — Corey Kilgannon, New York Times, 10 Jan. 2020
  • Or downtown was too unsafe, during the gangster era.
    — Jared Kaufman, Twin Cities, 11 Jan. 2026
  • The plot moves with the velocity of a gangster movie with a sneaky sense of humor.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 15 Aug. 2024
  • To that end, its house spirit is moonshine, and its owner hopes to cash in on the farm’s gangster lore.
    — New York Times, 12 Nov. 2020
  • Amateur thief stories and epic gangster sagas await you.
    — Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 28 Jan. 2026
  • Her book reveals that the gangster died in a shootout in Barrington.
    — Myrna Petlicki, Chicago Tribune, 17 Nov. 2022
  • But just as the gangsters put their faith in the would-be hitman to carry out the plot, their lawyers turned to him for a defense.
    — Karl Vick, TIME, 21 Mar. 2025
  • Everything but death metal and gangster rap.
    — Justin Fenner, Robb Report, 22 Feb. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gangster.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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