Skip to main content
thuggee

thuggee

1 9.9
Groups of criminals who secretly robbed and killed people in India in the 18th and 19th centuries
  • noun
  • /θʌɡi/
  • NSFW
translation icon : thuggee
  • Later l learnt the Thuggee cult was once real and did unspeakable things.
  • thuggee cult

Examples

  • The Thuggee were a murderous sect who had to be put down.

  • l have heard the evil stories of the Thuggee cult.

  • Thuggee was practiced from the Himalayas to Ceylon.

  • Our constabulary managed to diminish the number of murders, but we're forced to recognize the Thuggee still exists.

  • His reputation as an energetic agent of reform was secured by his effective campaign against thuggee, the cult of highway robbery and murder that rivaled suttee in horrifying British minds.

    Academic text (1991)
  • Thuggee was practiced from the Himalayas to Ceylon.

  • Later I learnt the Thuggee cult was once real and did unspeakable things.

Synonyms

gangsterism
vsthuggee
  • NSFW
2 7.4

A system where groups of criminals use violence and illegal methods

is a historical tightly organized practice of robbery and murder in one region
brigandage
vsthuggee
  • Archaic
1 9.9

Stealing from people in remote places using violence, often by groups of armed people

is a specific organized system of planned robbery and murder in one region

Surface Forms

thuggee singular
thuggees plural

Etymology

Thuggee comes from the Hindi word thag meaning 'deceiver' or 'thief', and it is the same root as the English word thug. In India the word named groups who pretended to be friendly and then killed and robbed people, so thuggee now means an organized system of robbery and murder.