rude
- 1Lacking good manners; behaving in a way that is impolite or disrespectful toward others.
Her rude comments about the food embarrassed everyone at dinner.
Ignoring the question entirely struck them as needlessly rude.
UsageRude to someone: don't be rude to the waiter. It's rude to + verb is common: it's rude to stare.
Similarimpolite, discourteous, disrespectful, insolent, impertinent
Oppositepolite, courteous, respectful, civil
Note
Shakespeare's "rude despiser of good manners" in As You Like It sets it squarely against civility.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Shakespeare's As You Like It contains the quoted phrase, spoken by Duke Senior to Orlando, explicitly contrasting the conduct with civility. folger.edu
- 2Referring to sex or bodily functions in a way regarded as improper, obscene, or offensive.
The comedian filled his act with rude jokes about bodily functions.
She quickly hid the rude magazine before her parents arrived.
UsageUsually before nouns like joke, word and picture: the kids giggled at a rude joke.
Similarcrude, vulgar, dirty, smutty, obscene
Note
Here the offense is in the content, not the behavior, and the force is mild: smutty rather than obscene outright. A rude film or a rude joke is one about sex or bodily functions. Rude language can tip either way, toward plain discourtesy or toward this sense, so the surrounding context has to make clear which kind of offense is meant.
- 3Sudden, harsh, and violent; abrupt or turbulent in force.
The blaring alarm was a rude awakening after such a quiet night.
The fire alarm gave us all a rude awakening at three in the morning.
UsageBest known in a rude awakening, a sudden unpleasant discovery, and a rude shock.
Similarharsh, abrupt, violent, sudden, rough
Note
Poets long applied it to moving air. Milton's winds are "rude in thir shock," and Tennyson still wishes a ship "no ruder air" in 1850.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Poets historically applied this sense to moving air; Milton describes winds as "rude in thir shock" in Paradise Lost. tha.de
- Tennyson wishes a ship freedom from "ruder air" in In Memoriam, Canto IX. en.wikisource.org
- The Tennyson quotation was first published in 1850. en.wikisource.org
- 4Made or done in a simple, rough, or primitive way; lacking refinement, polish, or skill in construction or execution.
The settlers threw up a rude cabin before the first snow fell.
Archaeologists uncovered rude stone tools shaped by early humans.
Similarcrude, rough, primitive, rudimentary, makeshift
Oppositerefined, polished, sophisticated, elaborate
Less common meanings
- 5Lacking education, training, or refinement; untaught, ignorant, and unpolished.
But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge
1611, The Holy Bible, King James VersionIt might be apprehended, that among rude nations, where the means of subsistence are procured with so much difficulty, the mind could never raise itself above the consideration of this subject
1767, Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil SocietySimilaruneducated, ignorant, unrefined, uncultured, unpolished
Oppositeeducated, refined, cultured, sophisticated
Note
Older prose is full of a rude that has nothing to do with discourtesy. "Rude in speech, yet not in knowledge," says the King James Bible of 1611, meaning untrained, not impolite. When Adam Ferguson writes of "rude nations" in 1767, he means peoples he saw as little advanced in learning and the arts. Read it as untaught wherever condition, not conduct, is at issue, and keep it apart from the bad-mannered meaning.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- Older texts use "rude" to mean lacking refinement or skill, independently of discourtesy. en.wiktionary.org
- The quotation occurs in the King James Bible, in 2 Corinthians 11:6. en.wikisource.org
- The King James Bible was first published in 1611. exhibits.lib.byu.edu
- "Rude" in the biblical quotation means untrained rather than impolite. en.wiktionary.org
- Adam Ferguson used "rude nations" in An Essay on the History of Civil Society. constitution.org
- Ferguson's work was first published in 1767. en.wikipedia.org
- He means peoples he considers less cultivated. An absolute absence of arts overstates his meaning: he explicitly attributes verse and song to "rude nations". gutenberg.org
- 6Hearty and vigorous, especially in robust physical condition, as in the phrase rude health.
Despite his years, the colonel stayed in rude health and rode daily.
The local economy was in rude health that year, defying every forecast.
UsageUsually in the phrase in rude health, said of people and of things like an economy.
Similarrobust, vigorous, excellent, hearty
Note
The roughness has turned into robustness: someone in rude health is not merely well but strong and hearty.
- 7Strikingly sexy; overtly and boldly attractive.
In that outfit she looked proper rude, and he couldn't stop staring.
In the photos from her birthday, she looks proper rude in that tight black dress, and the comments are full of heart-eye emojis.
UsageOften with proper or well in front: she looked proper rude.
Similarsexy, hot, attractive, gorgeous, fit
Oppositeunattractive
Note
Mike Skinner uses it on The Streets' album Original Pirate Material (2002), in a line that calls a girl rude and then says it again, insisting that he knows it to be true.
- 8
Practice
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Origin
Latin rudis, which meant "rough, raw, rude, wild, untilled," passed into Old French as rude or ruide and then into Middle English as rude.