PALOOKA Synonyms: 140 Similar and Opposite Words

palooka

noun

pə-ˈlü-kə

Definition of palooka

as in hulk

a big clumsy often slow-witted person I wish he wouldn't bring over here that bunch of palookas he calls his friends

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of palooka One year after the Academy bafflingly ignored his work in Sideways, Giamatti finally scored his first Oscar nomination for his purely entertaining performance as boxing manager Joe Gould in Ron Howard’s proudly old-fashioned Depression-era palooka drama. —A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 10 Mar. 2024 Sylvester Stallone's underdog tale about a struggling palooka given one shot at the heavyweight championship is a stirring sports movie with a level of charm and sweetness that dissipated in the rounds (and rounds) of sequels that followed. —Brian Lowry, CNN, 25 July 2019 All this real guts and glory in Philadelphia, yet one of the big tourist attractions is to run up the Art Museum steps the way a palooka named Rocky Balboa did on the silver screen. —Bill Livingston, cleveland.com, 1 Jan. 2018 The jokes (by screenwriters Van Robichaux and Evan Susser) have all the wit of a punch-drunk palooka. —Michael O'Sullivan, The Denver Post, 17 Feb. 2017 Without it, director Phillipe Falardeau's film would be a fairly unremarkable, fairly familiar ride, telling the tale of a big-hearted but undisciplined palooka whose biggest hurdle in life is his own bad judgment. —Mike Scott, NOLA.com, 17 May 2017

Recent Examples of Synonyms for palooka

Noun

The hulk of metal moved silently through space, high above the blue Earth.

— Keith Cooper, Space.com, 13 Feb. 2025
Having boy hulk Matthew Knies at the net front, to retrieve pucks and be a pain for the defence, is one positive step that’s been working.

— James Mirtle, The Athletic, 23 Jan. 2025