noun

• A member of a gang of violent criminals.

  ‘gangsters threatened to kill him if he did not cooperate in the theft’

  More example sentences

  • ‘gangster movies’
  • ‘The McLean gang member said the gangster had used Customs to clear the way for his own criminal activities.’
  • ‘In fact, many people believe gangsters and hoodlums are vicious and violent by nature.’
  • ‘Great crimes can also be committed by gangsters and petty criminals - if they have the necessary power.’
  • ‘Violence hangs in the air all around, with drug dealers, gangsters and street gangs combining to form a ring of terror.’
  • ‘They are wannabe gangsters in a wannabe gangster film that just doesn't work.’
  • ‘As for his other wars: they had saved Sierra Leone from a gang of gangsters.’
  • ‘Before that he'd been an actor, often on radio, playing gangsters who got a violent comeuppance.’
  • ‘She must be the only person in the UK unaware of the gun crime, perpetrated by Yardie gangsters in our major cities.’
  • ‘Bandits and gangsters do not on the whole give money to schools and hospitals.’
  • ‘After too many movies about New York gangsters, the suggestion that life in the city could be anything but corrupt is foolish.’
  • ‘I had read a lot about Mumbai gangsters, even seen movies made on them, but had never met one.’
  • ‘The new father was a former boss of a Chinese triad gang, and all his fellow gangsters were bound to show up.’
  • ‘We think they are criminals in shell suits, they think we are gun-toting gangsters.’
  • ‘The documentary, Gangster, considers how deprived communities look to gangsters for protection.’
  • ‘Suspected gangsters have been shackled by new laws designed to curb hoodlum behaviour.’
  • ‘Born in the city of Ulawood, his parents were killed by gangsters when he was only five years old.’
  • ‘The boxer may have been killed by gangsters because he was cooperating with a police investigation into a murder.’
  • ‘Thus begins an intense race between the police and the gangsters to capture the shadowy man behind the murders.’
  • ‘It has been claimed he was murdered by everyone from the security services to Dutch gangsters.’

  Synonyms

  hoodlum, racketeer, bandit, robber, ruffian, thug, tough, desperado, outlaw, villain, lawbreaker, criminal

  View synonyms