rowdy

comparative rowdier · superlative rowdiest · alternative rowdie

1. Loud and disorderly; riotous; boisterous.

   Synonyms: unruly, disorderly

plural rowdies · alternative rowdie

1. countableA boisterous person; a brawler.

   Carpenter recruited his gang at the saloon, rowdies all. They slept the day, drank well into the evening, and then set off for their pastime.

   2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, Fleet (2017), page 164

2. obsoleteslanguncountablemoney; ready money.

   I don’t know whether I quite approve of your throwing over Mr. P. for Mr. F., and don’t think Foker’s such a pretty name, and from your account of him he seems a muff, and not a beauty. But he has got the rowdy, which is the thing.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 76, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   "Where's your money?" Jack exclaimed, hoarsely, in a well-feigned voice. "Ah! where's the rowdy?" iterated Clayton, in a tone it was impossible to conceal. "I have no money — none — save a few guineas; there — there — in my pocket […]

   1842, William Leman Rede, The Royal Rake: and the Adventures of Alfred Chesterton, page 25

   The blessing of the priest converts flesh into fish; the skil of the resataurateur changes pet pussies into favourite dishes; the learning of the consmetic-chemist metamorphoses age into youth; the wisdom of Solomen Isaacs transmogrifies old garments into now; the tact of the lawyer makes the worse appear the better cause; and the magic spell of the ready—otherwise know as money, cash, tin, stuff, rhino, root-of-all-evil, blunt, wherewithal, 'rowdy, funds, stumpy, pecuniary, dibs, hard, browns, heavy, mopusses, slugs, shiners, lucre, or 'the filthy,' dust, gelt, chips, lumps, chinkers, mint-drops, pewter, brass, horsenails, rocks, brads, spondulix, needful, dough, spoons, buttons, dimes, or the infallible— will convert every article and item in that old sole-leather into "duty free."

   1855, Charles Godfrey Leland, chapter 22, in Meister Karl's Sketch-Book, Philadelphia: Parry & McMillan, page 166