palooka
/pəˈluːkə
/noun
1North American informal A stupid, uncouth person; a lout: these bearded, stumbling palookas in their peasants' breeches...
- Unless they're all palookas from the South Side, the writers come from leafy suburbs; and that loading zone behind the shopping center is not an alley.
- And frankly, a palooka Rollins is: covered head to toe with tattoos and belching metallic tales of power run amok and self-sufficiency.
- Maybe it's the only reason Neo's been hanging out with an old palooka like me.
1.1US dated An inferior or average prizefighter: he was just another palooka trying to muscle in on the fight racket...
- One boxer has plenty of pop, can hit bad pitches, and is a fun at-bat, while the other is your average palooka with a wood stick.
- Tyson was the palooka in his last fight, knocked out by Danny Williams in the fourth round last July 30.
- Relegated to fighting palookas in tiny towns, he was asked to tape a 10-second promotion for a local TV station in Florida.
Origin
1920s: of unknown origin.
Rhymes
- false mastic
- false memory
- false memory syndrome
- false modesty
- false move
- false negative
- falseness
- false oxlip
- false position
- false positive
- false pregnancy
- false pretences
- false rib
- false scorpion
- false start
- false step
- false sunbird
- false teeth
- false topaz
- falsetto
- false vampire
- false widow
- false widow spider
- falsework
- falsies