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rumbustious

/ˌˈrʌmˌbʌstʃəs/
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Other forms: rumbustiously

That kid who's had a little too much candy and is bouncing off the walls? Just call him rumbustious, an old word meaning noisy and undisciplined.

If you want to talk about someone who is unruly or just plain out of control, it's good to use an unruly word. In easygoing American English, we might refer to a rambunctious child, but before rambunctious there was rumbustious. That playful adjective goes all the way back to the late 18th century and still occasionally gets hauled out for comic effect, though using rambunctious will get you fewer odd looks.

Definitions of rumbustious
  1. adjective
    noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline
    “beneath the rumbustious surface of his paintings is sympathy for the vulnerability of ordinary human beings”
    disorderly
    undisciplined and unruly
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