How to Use hoodlum in a Sentence

hoodlum

noun
  • Street hoodlums threw sticks at him and bombed his front porch with bricks.
    — Frederick N. Rasmussen, Baltimore Sun, 23 July 2023
  • These two hoodlums deserve to be put away for a very long time.
    — Letter Writers, Twin Cities, 6 Feb. 2017
  • Reams said the cook had a helper, nicknamed a hoodlum, who did the heavy lifting and chores.
    — Vincent T. Davis, ExpressNews.com, 15 Feb. 2020
  • He's jumped by a bunch of teen hoodlums who steal his sign and give him a beating in an alley.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 31 Aug. 2019
  • But once arrested, they were portrayed by the press as a gang of hoodlums.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 June 2019
  • The issue is too many thugs, hoodlums and savage criminals on our street.
    — CBS News, 16 Apr. 2023
  • Bennett was once shot and wounded in a confrontation with a hoodlum.
    — Jack Kresnak, Detroit Free Press, 28 Jan. 2024
  • That's a bunch of hoodlums getting drunk in a bunk bed situation.
    — Dalton Ross, EW.com, 21 Feb. 2024
  • How was this cutup going to convince as a creature of the night, striking fear in the heart of hoodlums?
    — Vulture, 17 June 2023
  • How was this cutup going to convince as a creature of the night, striking fear in the heart of hoodlums?
    — Vulture, 25 Aug. 2023
  • The issue is not too many guns; the issue is too many thugs, hoodlums and savage criminals on our streets.
    — Nbc Universal, NBC News, 16 Apr. 2023
  • Hernández de Cruceño, however, was new in town, and had the look of a malandro, or hoodlum.
    — Seth Harp, Harper's Magazine, 27 Apr. 2020
  • Hernández de Cruceño, however, was new in town, and had the look of a malandro, or hoodlum.
    — Seth Harp, Harper's Magazine, 27 Apr. 2020
  • Hernández de Cruceño, however, was new in town, and had the look of a malandro, or hoodlum.
    — Christine Smallwood, Harper's Magazine, 30 Mar. 2020
  • Aleah and Grasso end up saving Lizzie’s ass and capturing the hoodlums.
    — Grace Byron, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2025
  • There was plenty to loathe about certain members of the band of criminals who surrounded our hoodlum-in-chief.
    — John R. MacArthur, Harper’s Magazine , 7 Dec. 2021
  • On another, hoodlums ran through the crowd, whacking protesters with plastic chairs.
    — Drew Hinshaw, WSJ, 24 Dec. 2017
  • However, hoodlums and thugs who throw objects at the players give up their rights and should be removed, charged, and possibly jailed.
    — Kate Plummer, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 Aug. 2025
  • Frankie and his friends, a group of young Coney Island hoodlums without much to do, spend their evenings trolling the boardwalk for babes and bud.
    — Katie Walsh, chicagotribune.com, 24 Aug. 2017
  • Some people told his family that Pereda went to a movie that night and a hoodlum told him someone outside wanted to see him.
    — Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 17 Mar. 2025
  • However, their dreams are threatened by the hoodlums in the Riverbottom Gang.
    — EW.com, 30 Nov. 2024
  • Critics refer to the kids who covered the iconic Beaux Arts-style building as vandals and hoodlums.
    — Phoebe Wall Howard, Detroit Free Press, 7 June 2024
  • In one scene the country-music legend, who portrayed a hoodlum named Johnny Cabot, grabbed Ron and held him hostage.
    — Patrick J. Kiger, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2021
  • Tall, slender, rugged-looking, frequently talking in street slang, Cobb sometimes seemed to enjoy acting as a hoodlum.
    — Mary Zahn and Bill Janz, Journal Sentinel, 17 Jan. 2024
  • When Jennifer Lawrence isn’t full-frontally beating the bejesus out of insouciant hoodlums, that is.
    — Charles Bramesco, Vulture, 10 Feb. 2025
  • Those protestors that Saturday didn’t look like principled advocates for anything, but more like a bunch of selfish hoodlums who need to grow up.
    — Letter Writers, Twin Cities, 12 May 2024
  • The first pictures McCullin took were of hoodlums and down-and-outs, subjects that reflected his own hardscrabble background.
    — Andrew Pulver, Air Mail, 31 Jan. 2026
  • Thankfully, nobody was hurt, but had the homeowners arrived minutes earlier or had the hoodlums opted to attack them, the outcome could have been much worse.
    — Paul Jenkins, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Jan. 2018
  • And, of course, there’s Mark Wahlberg, an ace actor who parlayed his Calvin-Klein-hoodlum-of-rap image into true movie stardom.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 28 Nov. 2021
  • Get our daily newsletter Crime was once solid ground for Tories, who mocked liberal opponents for their soft treatment of hoodlums.
    — The Economist, 7 Nov. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hoodlum.' 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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