From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthugthug /θʌɡ/ ●○○ noun [countable] VIOLENTa violent man He was beaten up by a gang of young thugs.
Examples from the Corpus
thug• Seeking vengeance, he employs two Dickensian thugs, with startling and bleakly hilarious results.• A gang of thugs was waiting for him round the back. He didn't have a chance.• It's the one-off thug who normally panics and lashes out.• The thugs pounced as Tony McLoughlin prepared to open up the school shortly after 7am.• A policeman is fighting for his life after young thugs threw a brick through his patrol car windscreen.Origin thug (1800-1900) Hindi thag “thief”, from Sanskrit sthaga “bad man” 