goon
noun/ɡuːn/
/ɡuːn/
(informal)- (especially North American English) a criminal who is paid to frighten or injure people
- Just call off your goons and no one will get hurt.
- The goons at the next table were just itching to finish him off.
- (especially British English, old-fashioned) a stupid or silly person
Word Originmid 19th cent.: perhaps from dialect gooney ‘booby’; influenced by the subhuman cartoon character ‘Alice the Goon’, created by E. C. Segar (1894–1938), American cartoonist.
Check pronunciation:
goon