What's the difference between hooligan and ruffian?

Hooligan


Definition:

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Associating themselves with the freedom demonstrations has given Pegida protests an air of moral respectability even though there are hundreds of rightwing extremists in their midst, as well as established groups of hooligans who are known to the police, according to Germany’s federal office for the protection of the constitution.
  • (2) Three members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot are facing two years in a prison colony after they were found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, in a case seen as the first salvo in Vladimir Putin's crackdown on opposition to his rule.
  • (3) While Egypt's military rulers were quick to blame football hooliganism, a group of hardline Al Ahly fans, known as ultras, accused the police of intentionally letting rivals attack them because of their historic antipathy to the security forces and their role at the forefront of anti-Mubarak protests a year ago.
  • (4) Russian prosecutors have launched a criminal case against the media tycoon Alexander Lebedev on charges of hooliganism for punching a fellow billionaire on a television programme.
  • (5) Tolokonnikova, 23, Alekhina, 24, and Samutsevich, 29, have been charged with "hooliganism on the grounds of religious hatred", with a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.
  • (6) Later, Platini added: “I supported Mr Blatter in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 but now it is perhaps time to get some fresh air into the governing body of the world.” In his speech, Platini also warned of the dangers of a rise in nationalism across Europe and a return to the hooliganism of the 1980s inside football stadiums.
  • (7) On Friday, Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich were found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, receiving a two-year prison sentence.
  • (8) Do they see the Pussy Riot performers as prisoners of conscience or as hooligans causing deep offence to Russia's state religion?
  • (9) Indeed, yesterday – almost unremarked – it was reported that Maria Alyokhina, one of the two imprisoned musicians, was being transferred from the labour camp in the Perm region, where she has been serving two years for hooliganism for performing a song, to another prison in central Russia.
  • (10) They were sentenced to two years in prison for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred".
  • (11) All the protesters have been released on bail, but all face possible trial on charges of hooliganism, which has a maximum penalty of seven years.
  • (12) "The media like to paint a picture of hooligans and thugs, mindless men on the rampage.
  • (13) The force also developed the technique of using FIT surveillance officers to monitor crowds, a technique first used against football hooligans in the late 1990s that has since been adopted by forces across the country.
  • (14) He was also recently thrown out of Wembley Stadium for hooliganism during England's 3-0 victory over Peru.
  • (15) The Russian newspaper and airline owner was due to stand trial on Thursday for alleged hooliganism on charges that carry a maximum prison sentence of five years, after being prosecuted for punching Sergei Polonsky on a television show but the hearing was put back by several weeks.
  • (16) They have been reviled as vandals, hooligans and lunatics.
  • (17) Four climbers accused of repainting the Soviet star on one of Moscow's Stalinist skyscrapers in Ukrainian colours , and hanging a Ukrainian flag, are facing up to seven years in prison on charges of hooliganism.
  • (18) But it's not just some hooligan's tag, like Google's artless Irish scam.
  • (19) Eyewitnesses spoken to by the Guardian said there was more to the violence than pure football hooliganism, the reason put forward by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, which has ruled Egypt since Mubarak's removal.
  • (20) The Greenpeace activists look set to be charged with a clause of the hooliganism law that covers actions carried out by an organised group and has a maximum charge of seven years.

Ruffian


Definition:

  • (n.) A pimp; a pander; also, a paramour.
  • (n.) A boisterous, cruel, brutal fellow; a desperate fellow ready for murderous or cruel deeds; a cutthroat.
  • (a.) brutal; cruel; savagely boisterous; murderous; as, ruffian rage.
  • (v. i.) To play the ruffian; to rage; to raise tumult.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Behind the Manchester ruffian image, they were conscientious people.
  • (2) These trousers, it later transpired, cost £995, and Nicky Morgan duly seized that predictable bait and snorted, “I don’t think I’ve ever spent that much on anything apart from my wedding dress.” After all, she added, while possibly patting a young local ruffian on the head, “My barometer is always, ‘How am I going to explain this in Loughborough market?” I think this was Morgan’s clueless way of saying she keeps it real, but it didn’t really work because those trousers looked exactly like the kind of thing sold in my local market, which, just this weekend, alongside the £1 Christmas crackers, was selling leather bustiers and disgusting, studded leather jackets.
  • (3) Two centuries later, Ruskin echoed these sentiments: Caravaggio, he claimed, painted “for the sake of the shadows”, and he was a “ruffian … distinguished only by his preference for candlelight and reinforcement of villainy”.
  • (4) Budget night at the opera: 28 March 1980 The souvenir programme (with it being a gala night, the programme cost more than a seat in some other theatres) promised "knights, esquires, ladies, ruffians, pages, maskers, soldiers, ushers, halberdiers, cupbearers and gondoliers."
  • (5) With their tight jeans and updated teddy-boy styles, the four gaff lads exude rough sex: they could have walked straight out of the Smiths's "Rusholme Ruffians" from the album Meat is Murder.