Word.ws English Dictionary

hey rube

US/heɪ ɹub/

hey rube interjection: a call to rally circus members in a fight.

Interjection

  1. A call to rally circus members in a fight.

Noun (1)

hey rube (plural hey rubes)

  1. A fight between members of a circus and the general public.
    • "I said 'Shut it, Camel! I'm dealing with a situation here.' Walter says. /.'What kind of situation?' says Camel. / "'Jacob's messed up.' / "'What? How? Was there a hey rube?'"2006, Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants
  2. (broadly) Any fight or conflict, especially a rowdy and informal one.

Noun (2) capitalized: hey Rube

hey Rube (plural hey Rubes)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of hey rube.

Forms of hey rube

Interjection
alternative formhey Rube
Noun
pluralhey rubes
pluralhey Rubes

Origin of hey rube

Used since approximately 1935; from a shortening of the given name Reuben. It originated as a cry used by circus workers, possibly because of the connotations of the name Reuben as belonging to someone living in the rural USA.

Questions about hey rube

What does hey rube mean?
Hey rube means a call to rally circus members in a fight.
What part of speech is hey rube?
Hey rube can be an interjection or a noun.
How do you pronounce hey rube?
Hey rube is pronounced /heɪ ɹub/ (US).

Words near hey rube in the dictionary

  1. hey ho
  2. hey Joe
  3. hey mister
  4. hey pass
  5. hey presto
  6. hey rube
  7. hey rubes
  8. hey there
  9. hey up
  10. hey ya
  11. hey-diddle-diddle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hey rube (page history and authors); hey Rube (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “hey rube.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hey_rube. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.