Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An unsophisticated country person.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A person of rural heritage; a yokel.
  • noun pejorative An uninformed, unsophisticated, or unintelligent person.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably from Rube, nickname for Reuben.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Generic use of the name Rube.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "I’m sure that scene caused gales of laughter in the blue states, because there’s nothing more hilarious than making fun of the Jesus-believing rubes."

    - 'Beowulf' review, Michael Karounos, Nov 2007.

    December 1, 2007

  • "Reason and rationality told him that Stark could not be out there, ramming around like some weird cancer in human form, killing people. As the country rube in Oliver Goldsmith's 'She Stoops To Conquer' was wont to say, it was perfectly unpossible, Diggory."

    - 'The Dark Half', Stephen King.

    December 31, 2007

  • '"Where did they go? You know, day after day I stand here - wondering just where do they go!" That's Thurston's gag. By God, I'm going to use it until I see one face - just one - in this bunch of rubes that gets the point. They never do.'

    - Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham

    June 30, 2012