Meaning of rogue in English

rogue

adjective [ before noun ]

/rəʊɡ/ us

/roʊɡ/

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behaving in ways that are not expected or not normal, often in a way that causes damage:

a rogue state

rogue cells

biology specialized

A rogue animal is a dangerous wild animal that lives apart from the rest of its group.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Dangerous and harmful

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Animal (non-human) behaviour

go rogue

informal

to start behaving in a way that is not normal or expected, especially by leaving your group and doing something dangerous:

A Special Forces unit had gone rogue and was trying to free the hostage.

rogue

noun [ C ]

/rəʊɡ/ us

/roʊɡ/

old-fashioned humorous

a person who behaves badly but who you still like:

"Come here, you little rogue!" chuckled my uncle.

The women all think he's a lovable old rogue.

old-fashioned

a dishonest or bad man

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People in general

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(Definition of rogue from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

rogue | American Dictionary

rogue

noun [ C ]

/roʊɡ/

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a person, organization, or country that does not behave in the usual or acceptable way:

Buzzy’s a fun-loving teenage rogue.

rogue

adjective [ not gradable ] us

/roʊɡ/

A rogue employee might tap into the computer.

(Definition of rogue from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

rogue | Business English

rogue

adjective [ before noun ]

/rəʊɡ/ us

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behaving in ways that are not expected or not normal, often in a harmful way:

There have been rogue firms in the past which have ripped customers off.

a rogue state

(Definition of rogue from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of rogue

rogue

In these cases, the nonhuman comes in the form of a rogue comet or asteroid, shattering the stability of the human world.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Wholesale exchange might be culturally entropic, then, but the degeneration also creates rogue hybrids and potentials that undermine any stability of the system.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To the antebellum rogue, the city's gigantic web of secrets held unlimited financial rewards, if only it could be interpreted properly.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

For all that, he is benevolent and kind, neither rogue nor scoundrel.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, even the presence of very few rogue edges can prevent a long directed path.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Religion has the capacity to produce saints, but it also has the capacity to produce rogues.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The rumours alone probably made their abbot look like a rogue in the eyes of their neighbours.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In these areas, refugee resources are contested by different political actors and power structures, including rebel groups, warlords, or even rogue army factions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Although every rogue cancer cell may be annihilated, the psychological echo may resonate for decades.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In a very few instances, those removed out of the parishes were notorious rogues or vagrants.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

He looked like a rogue but his words were considered and his tone contemplative.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The town and county at large were encouraged to view him as a cheat and a rogue.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

It is the converse of this rogue's losing struggle with his hypocrisy.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

I felt the best way to do that was to have one extra person who came in just for that story, as the sort of rogue presence.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In a small corpus, a single 'rogue' text has the potential to skew the data, for example by spuriously inflating the importance of certain lexical items.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of rogue?