larrikinism

Noun

larrikinism (uncountable)

1. (Australia, New Zealand) The behaviour of larrikins (hooligans); impertinent and disrespectful behaviour.
   • I would have thrashed him well at the start but for the letters I constantly received from home warning me against giving offence to the parents, and knew that to set my foot on the children's larrakinism would require measures that would gain their mother's ill-will at once.1901, Miles Franklin, “To Life—continued”, in My Brilliant Career, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 251
   • The apparent decline of larrikinism in Sydney in the late 1890s provides a specific illustration of the ambiguous relation between official policies, socioeconomic change, and change in deviant behavior.1977, Ted Robert Gurr, Peter N. Grabosky, Richard C. Hula, The Politics of Crime and Conflict: A Comparative History of Four Cities, page 382
2. (Australia) Behaviour that is rebellious against and contemptuous of authority and convention.
   • Neither Menzies nor Fraser made any attempt to wield the imagery of the legend, and Gorton's larrikinism made him unfit to hold high office in the eyes of Liberal Party powerbrokers.2003, Judith Brett, Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard, page 203
   • The sense of independence and loyalty remained, though the humour, irreverence, and “larrikinism”, core qualities of the digger identity that appeared so strongly in social protests throughout the war, were hidden within a new encompassing sense of respect and remorse, and a new identity in the...2007, Marjolein C. 't Hart, Dennis Bos, Humour and Social Protest, page 239