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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Recent Examples of palooka
Don’t be a palooka, start Nacua.
—
Bill Reinhard, New York Daily News, 12 Dec. 2024
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
The jokes, by screenwriters Van Robichaux and Evan Susser, have all the wit of a punch-drunk palooka.
—Michael O'Sullivan, The Mercury News, 17 Feb. 2017
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
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Remember: Without the stunning moment when the boat kisses that frozen hulk, this Best Picture winner is just another Romeo and Juliet knockoff.—
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Like the ghostly hulk of the Titanic below the surface of the sea, Northbrook Court is a quiet and cavernous relic — at the bottom of the retail food chain.—
Noun
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More Mark Taylor/Getty Images Bleacher Report's Zachary D. Rymer has predicted that New York will be the biggest losers when the trade deadline is complete.—
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Order backlogs were a defining factor between winners and losers.—
Noun
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In a flat city where all private and public property is organized into rectangles and triangles aligned with the principal points of the compass, Lincoln Yards is defined by a series of wedges, lumps and lobes that don’t adjoin with the rest of the Chicago street map.—
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Everyday Comfort smoothing panty for a completely smooth silhouette without any bumps or lumps.—
Noun
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As an adult, Superman was able to rescue his dog from the Phantom Zone, and the mutt gained superpowers under the yellow sun.—
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First seen barreling toward the camera at speeds only the most brazen digital effects house could estimate, this mutt runs like the wind and pounces like an anvil with hairy legs and a neat red cape.—
Noun
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In 1994, Hogan joined WCW and reinvented himself as a villain, forming the New World Order (nWo) and ushering in a new era of edgy storytelling.—
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The film is currently filming in London with Joe and Anthony Russo, the directors behind the highest-grossing MCU movies ever, back behind the camera; Downey now playing the chief villain; and a slew of stars from the lost era of Fox's X-Men movies reprising their roles for the first time in years.—
Noun
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Pepe the Frog became political, then hate symbol, during 2016 election The frog doodle in clown accessories that flashes in the video is known as Pepe the Frog, and its appearance in Trump's social media posts has sparked interest before.—
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Visitors can take part in the action at the on-site museum where 700 pieces of clown memorabilia are displayed in every nook and cranny, some even suspended from the ceiling.—
Noun
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The animals included 12 bats, nine racoons, eight skunks, two groundhogs, a bobcat, three cats and a fox, data shows.—
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People and domestic animals should always avoid physical contact with wild animals such as raccoons, bats, foxes, skunks, otters, bobcats, coyotes, which carry a higher risk of human exposure and a need for rabies post-exposure treatment.—
Cite this Entry
“Palooka.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/palooka. Accessed 1 Aug. 2025.
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