a member of a group of often delinquent teenagers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, noted for listening to ska music and wearing suits with trilby or similar soft felt hats
2. (in Jamaica)
a member of a group of lower- or working-class teenagers in the 1960s, noted for listening to ska music and for juvenile delinquency: they inspired the later rude-boy fashion in Britain
Also called: rudie, rudy, rudi
Word origin
C20: originally Jamaican slang, from rude in the sense of coarse, vulgar, or uncouth