Meanings
plural wrong 'uns · alternative wrong'un · alternative wrongen
- UKderogatoryslangA dishonest or disreputable person; a crook or rogue.
Some reasons why Naseem Hamed might have been stripped of his MBE for speeding, where acknowledged wrong 'uns Jeffrey Archer, Shirley Porter and Mark Thatcher kept their honours.
2007 January 5, The Guardian, G2 p. 31 more example
We might not have had that much to pinch, but they'd still have your brass candlesticks off the mantelpiece. There's always wrong 'uns, in every walk of life, who'll have whatever you've got from under your nose.
2000, Gilda O'Neill, My East End: Memories of Life in Cockney London - ball gamesA googly.
- hobbiesA horse deliberately held back in order to lose a race.
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna cricket ball bowled as if to break one way that actually breaks in the opposite way
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From wrong + one. Compare young'un.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
wrong 'un. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wrong%20'un
“wrong 'un.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wrong%20'un. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wrong 'un,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wrong%20'un.
Source: wrong 'un on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.