English

Noun

rogue ‎(plural rogues)

1. A scoundrel, rascal or unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person.
   • 1834, Sir Walter Scott, The abbott: being a sequel to The monastery, Volume 19

     And meet time it was, when yon usher, vinegar-faced rogue that he is, began to inquire what popish trangam you were wearing […]

   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:

     “… No rogue e’er felt the halter draw, with a good opinion of the law, and perhaps my own detestation of the law arises from my having frequently broken it. […]”

   • July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Rises

     As The Dark Knight Rises brings a close to Christopher Nolan’s staggeringly ambitious Batman trilogy, it’s worth remembering that director chose The Scarecrow as his first villain—not necessarily the most popular among the comic’s gallery of rogues, but the one who set the tone for entire series.

2. A mischievous scamp.
   • Shakespeare

     Ah, you sweet little rogue, you!

3. A vagrant.
4. Deceitful software pretending to be anti-spyware, but in fact being malicious software itself. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
5. An aggressive animal separate from the herd, especially an elephant.
6. A plant that shows some undesirable variation.
   • 2000 Carol Deppe, Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties, Totnes: Chelsea Green Pub.

     Maintaining varieties also requires selection, however. It's usually referred to as culling or roguing. ...we examine the [plant] population and eliminate the occasional rogue.

7. (role-playing games) A character class focusing on stealthy conduct.

Synonyms

• See wikisaurus:villain

Translations

Adjective

rogue ‎(comparative more rogue, superlative most rogue)

1. (of an animal, especially an elephant) Vicious and solitary.
2. (by extension) Large, destructive and unpredictable.
3. (by extension) Deceitful, unprincipled.
   • 2004: Chris Wallace, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage

     In the minds of Republican hard-liners, the "Silent Majority" of Americans who had elected the President, and even Nixon's two Democrat predecessors, China was a gigantic nuke-wielding rogue state prepared to overrun the free world at any moment.

4. Mischievous, unpredictable.
   • 2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55:

     Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.

Translations

Verb

rogue ‎(third-person singular simple present rogues, present participle roguing or rogueing, simple past and past participle rogued)

1. (horticulture) To cull; to destroy plants not meeting a required standard. Especially when saving seed, rogue or unwanted plants are removed before pollination.
   • 2000 Carol Deppe, Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties, Totnes: Chelsea Green Pub.

     Maintaining varieties also requires selection, however. It's usually referred to as culling or roguing. ...we examine the [plant] population and eliminate the occasional rogue.

2. (obsolete) To give the name or designation of rogue to; to decry.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cudworth to this entry?)

3. (obsolete) To wander; to play the vagabond; to play knavish tricks.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

Derived terms

See also

• rouge the shade of red

Anagrams

• rouge

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁɔɡ/

Etymology 1

From Middle French rogue, from Old Northern French *rogue ‎(“fish eggs”), from Old Norse hrogn ‎(“roe”), from Proto-Germanic *hrugną ‎(“spawn, roe”), from Proto-Indo-European *krek- ‎(“spawn, frogspawn”). More at roe.

Noun

rogue f ‎(plural rogues)

1. roe (eggs of fish)

Etymology 2

From Middle French rogue, from Old French rogre ‎(“haughty; aggressive; exhilarated”), from Old Norse hrokr ‎(“excess; insolence”). Cognate with Icelandic hrokur ‎(“arrogance”).

Adjective

rogue m, f ‎(plural rogues)

1. haughty
2. contemptuous
3. roguish

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French rogre ‎(“haughty; aggressive; exhilarated”), from Old Norse hrokr ‎(“excess; insolence”). Cognate with Icelandic hrokur ‎(“arrogance”).

Adjective

rogue m, f ‎(plural rogues)

1. arrogant; haughty

Portuguese

Verb

rogue

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of rogar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of rogar
3. first-person singular imperative of rogar
4. third-person singular imperative of rogar