English Explanatory Dictionary

hey rube

English dictionary entry

Meanings

intj
  1. A call to rally circus members in a fight.
noun
  1. A fight between members of a circus and the general public.
  2. Any fight or conflict, especially a rowdy and informal one.
noun
  1. Alternative letter-case form of hey rube.

Pronunciation

/heɪ ɹub/

Word forms

hey rube hey rubes

Etymology

Used since approximately 1935; from a shortening of the given name Reuben. It originated as a cry used by circus workers, possibly because of the connotations of the name Reuben as belonging to someone living in the rural USA.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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