rugby
Syllables: rug·byUK/ˈɹʌɡbi/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/ˈɹʊɡbi/
rugby noun: a form of football in which players can hold or kick an ovoid ball; rugby football. The ball cannot be handled forwards and points are scored by touching the ball to the ground in the area past the opponent's territory or by kicking the ball between goalposts and over a crossbar. Also the ellipsis of rugby shirt.
Noun (1)
rugby (countable and uncountable, plural rugbies)
- A form of football in which players can hold or kick an ovoid ball; rugby football. The ball cannot be handled forwards and points are scored by touching the ball to the ground in the area past the opponent's territory or by kicking the ball between goalposts and over a crossbar.
- The scrum is a distinctive element of rugby.
- The two rugbies split following a debate about amateurism.
- Synonyms:
- rugger
- The form of the game known as rugby union (see the usage note).
Verb
rugby (third-person singular simple present rugbies, present participle rugbying, simple past and past participle rugbied)
- To play rugby.
Noun (2)
rugby (plural rugbys)
- Rubber cement, contact cement; commonly associated with solvent abuse, as it is often used as an inhalant.
Proper noun capitalized: Rugby
Rugby
- A town in Warwickshire, England, where the sport of rugby is thought to have originated (OS grid ref SP5075).
- A local government district with borough status in Warwickshire, with its headquarters in the town.
- An unincorporated community in Las Animas County, Colorado.
- An unincorporated community in Haw Creek Township, Bartholomew County, Indiana.
- A city, the county seat of Pierce County, North Dakota.
- An unincorporated community in Morgan County and Scott County, Tennessee.
- An unincorporated community in Grayson County, Virginia.
- A village in Hilltops council area, New South Wales, Australia.
Also used as
rugby is also the ellipsis of rugby shirt.
rugby meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
rugby in Hindi
- form of football in which players can hold or kick an ovoid ball
- रग्बी ragbī
rugby in Tamil
- form of football in which players can hold or kick an ovoid ball
- ரக்பி rakpi
rugby in Marathi
- रग्बी, रग्बीला
rugby in Urdu
- form of football in which players can hold or kick an ovoid ball
- رگبی ragbī
More languagesFewer languages
- rugby in Bengali
- রাগবি, রগবি, র্যাগবি
- rugby in Telugu
- రగ్బీ, రగ్బి, రగ్బీయింగ్
- rugby in Malayalam
- റഗ്ബി, റഗ്ബീ, റഗ്ബിയിലേക്ക്
- rugby in Kannada
- ರಗ್ಬಿ, ರಗ್ಬಿಯು
- rugby in Punjabi
- ਰਗਬੀ, ਰਗਬੀਅੰਗ, ਰਗਬੀ ਤੱਕ
- rugby in Gujarati
- રગ્બી, રગબી, રગ્બીંગ
- rugby in Odia
- ରଗ୍ବି, ରଗବୀ, ରଗ୍ବୀ
- rugby in Nepali
- रग्बी, रगबी
- rugby in Arabic
- رَغْبِي raḡbī, رَجْبِي rajbī, رَكْبِي rakbī
- rugby in Malay
- ragbi
- rugby in Indonesian
- rugbi
- rugby in Persian
- راگبی râgbi
- rugby in Thai
- รักบี้ rák-bîi
- rugby in Vietnamese
- bóng bầu dục
Examples of rugby in a sentence
- The rugby team's star player got injured in a violent collision.
- My obsession with rugby resulted in me spending years following the sport.
- He’s a big, burly rugby player who works as a landscape gardener.
Synonyms of rugby
Forms of rugby
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | rugbies |
| alternative form | Rugby |
| plural | rugbys |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | rugbies |
| present participle | rugbying |
| past participle | rugbied |
| past | rugbied |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form (obsolete) | Rokeby |
Origin of rugby
From the name of Rugby School in Rugby, in Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom, where the modern game was developed in the 19th century. The place name Rugby is attested in the Domesday Book as Old English Rocheberie (probably equivalent to rook (“Corvus frugilegus, a bird of the crow family”) + -by (suffix indicating a village or town)), possibly from *Hrōcebyriġ, dative singular of *Hrōceburh, from hrōc (“rook”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“to crow”)) + burh, burg (“castle, fort, stronghold; city; town”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“hill, mountain; high, lofty; to rise”)).
Genericized trademark from Rugby, a brand of rubber cement by Bostik.
From earlier Rokeby (rook + -by), from Middle English Rokebi, an alteration (using the Middle English bi (“village, town”), from Old Norse býr (“town, settlement”)) of Old English Rocheberie, possibly from earlier Old English *Hrōceburh (literally “rook-fort, Rookbury”).
Words formed from rugby
- rugby boy
- Rugbeian
- chesterfield rugby
- flag rugby
- mini rugby
- nonrugby
- quad rugby
- rippa rugby
- rugby ball
- rugby boot
- rugbyesque
- rugby fives
- rugby football
- rugby footballer
- rugby head
- rugbyist
- rugby league
- rugbylike
- rugby pass
- rugby player
- rugby sevens
- rugby shirt
- rugby tackle
- rugby union
- rugger
- tag rugby
- touch rugby
- underwater rugby
- wheelchair rugby
Phrases with rugby
Questions about rugby
- What does rugby mean?
- Rugby means a form of football in which players can hold or kick an ovoid ball; rugby football. The ball cannot be handled forwards and points are scored by touching the ball to the ground in the area past the opponent's territory or by kicking the ball between goalposts and over a crossbar.
- What is rugby in Hindi?
- Rugby in Hindi is रग्बी (ragbī). See Rugby meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is rugby?
- Rugby can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce rugby?
- Rugby is pronounced /ˈɹʌɡbi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of rugby?
- The plural of rugby is rugbies.
Words near rugby in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: rugby (page history and authors); Rugby (page history and authors); rugby (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rugby (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rugby (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rugby (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rugby (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rugby (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rugby (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rugby (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rugby (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-rugby.ogg.
Cite this entry: “rugby.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rugby. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.