rambunctious

English
WOTD – 19 July 2020

Etymology

A variant of rumbustious (“boisterous and unruly”).[1]

Pronunciation

Adjective

rambunctious (comparative more rambunctious, superlative most rambunctious)

  1. (chiefly US, informal) Boisterous, energetic, noisy, and difficult to control.
    Synonyms: (slang) hyphy, robustious, rumbustious, (Northern England, Scotland) shandy, unruly, wild
    The kids are being especially rambunctious today.
    • 1852 November, O’Hara Family, “Clough Fionn; or, The Stone of Destiny”, in The Dublin University Magazine, a Literary and Political Journal, volume XL, number CCXXXIX, Dublin: James McGlashan, […]; London: W[illia]m S[omerville] Orr and Company, OCLC 841086102, chapter XI, page 557, column 1:
      "Bad cess may attend you, where are you scampering to, you rambunctious"—but she could go no farther; the tears burst from her, and she gave way, without farther resistance, to an explosion of grief.
    • 1856 October, “About These Books”, in J. Clement, editor, The Western Literary Messenger […], volume XXVII, number II, Buffalo, N.Y.: Thomas & Lathrops, […], OCLC 971898429, page 64, column 1:
      "Not as you knows on, you rambunctious wool grower," said the indignant Yankee.
    • 1862 January, “A Canal-boat Sketch”, in Duffy’s Hibernian Magazine. […], volume I (New Series), number 1, Dublin; London: James Duffy, […], OCLC 1152067582, page 92:
      There was close by me a window, and, noiselessly as possible, I slid back a small piece, thereby rousing the light-sleeping mistress of the canary, who sharply requested it be closed again; [...] the other lady smiled despairingly, and signed me to obey, which I reluctantly did by closing the glass; but the shutter proved rumbunctious, and for no effort of mine would again move out of his groove; [...]
    • 1873 March, W[illia]m S. Walsh, “How We Watched the Grapes”, in J[ohn] T[ownsend] Trowbridge and Lucy Larcom, editors, Our Young Folks. An Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls, volume IX, number III, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, […], OCLC 41110873, page 181:
      "I guess the governor'd be rambunxious, as usual, if I was to ask his permission," the dutiful son remarked; "but he's going away for a few days next week, and mother won't hinder me, I know."
    • 1979, “The Art of Government is the Art of Adjustment”, in Canada Today = Canada d’aujourd’hui, volume 10, number 4, Washington, D.C.: Canadian Embassy, ISSN 0045-4257, OCLC 1553023, page 2:
      It may sometimes appear that Canada is composed of nine complacent, cohesive English-speaking provinces and rambunctious Quebec. In fact, it is composed of ten provinces, each different and all occasionally rambunctious.
    • 1990 March, L[ucyan] David Mech, “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”, in Audubon, New York, N.Y.: National Audubon Society, ISSN 0004-7694, OCLC 6823366, page 82, column 2; reprinted in “Appendix 15. Article—Wolf Attacks on Humans”, in The Reintroduction of Gray Wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho: Final Environmental Impact Statement, Helena, Mont.: Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, May 1994, OCLC 30573760, page 6-100:
      Eventually the two rambunctious wolves decided to race back towards the carcass, no doubt forgetting I was still there.
    • 2002 May 1, Jeffrey J. Rowland, Wigu Adventures‎, archived from the original on 6 January 2009:
      Mrs. Tinkle, your son’s rambunctious behavior is quite common in children with unusually high intelligence levels.
    • 2015, Molly Whittington-Egan, “Preface: Into the Cabinet”, in Mrs Guppy Takes a Flight: A Scandal of Victorian Spiritualism, [Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland]: Neil Wilson Publishing, →ISBN, page x:
      She was placid, stately and Juno-esque, soft-toned in her trance utterances, but she could become powerful in her office, an imposing presence. Sometimes a rumbunctious, chaffing persona emerged and was a little over the top for genteel spinsters to tolerate.
    • 2018 December 12, Charles Bramesco, “A Spoonful of Nostalgia Helps the Calculated Mary Poppins Returns Go Down”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 24 May 2019:
      She does the same thing as any parent worth their salt, and gets rambunctious youngsters engaged in daily drudgeries by refashioning the quotidian as adventure.

Alternative forms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References
  1. “rambunctious, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2008; “rambunctious, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
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