goon

(gūn)
n. Slang

1. A thug hired to intimidate or harm opponents.
2. A stupid or oafish person.

[Probably ultimately short for GOONEY, simpleton.]

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noun

A person who treats others violently and roughly, especially for hire: hoodlum, ruffian, thug, tough. Informal hooligan. Slang gorilla, hood. See attack/defend, crimes.

1. n. a stupid person; a fool.  Todd is a silly goon, but he's a lot of fun at parties.
2. n. a hooligan; a thug or bodyguard. (Underworld.)  Call off your goons!

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noun
noun, orig US

1: A foolish or dull person. (1921 —) .
S. Clark There, you goon. You'll bump into them if you don't watch out (1959).

2: orig US A person hired by racketeers, etc. to terrorize political or industrial opponents; a thug. (1938 —) .
It Heath orders Habershon of Barnet CID to 'turn London over'. And he does exactly that...with 500 goons and a score of specially trained dogs (1971).

3: A nickname given by British and US prisoners of war to their German guards during World War II. (1945 —) .
Times 'Goon-baiting', which was the favourite occupation of the prisoners (1962).

[Perh. from dialect gooney noun, simpleton; influenced by the subhuman cartoon character called Alice the Goon created by E. C. Segar ((1894 — 1938)), American cartoonist.]

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For a list of words related to goon, see:

• Hockey
• Appearance or Style
• Behavior or Personality
• Violent Persons - goon: Informal. hoodlum or thug, esp. one hired to attack others

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See words rhyming with "goon."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Goon.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - stort brød, ubegavet fyr

Nederlands (Dutch)
sufferd, huurmoordenaar

Français (French)
n. - homme de main (péj)

Deutsch (German)
n. - gedungener Schläger, Dummkopf

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - χαζούλης, (καθομ.) μπράβος, εγκάθετος

Italiano (Italian)
babbeo, gorilla

Português (Portuguese)
n. - capanga (m) (esp. para dispersar grevistas), pessoa estúpida (f)

Русский (Russian)
громила, наемный хулиган

Español (Spanish)
n. - tonto, mentecato, terrorista pagado, guardaespaldas, esbirro

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - idiot, tråkmåns, våp, torped

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
受雇暴徒, 呆子, 愚笨者

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 受雇暴徒, 呆子, 愚笨者

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 깡패, 바보

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ならず者, 暴力団員, まぬけ
adj. - ナチスドイツの

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) شخص ابله, شخص يستأجر لترويع الآخرين‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮טיפש, בריון שכיר‬

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