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rogues' gallery

noun

Etymology

From rogue + gallery. Popularized by American detectives Allan Pinkerton and Thomas F. Byrnes.

  1. derived from Galilaea
  2. derived from galilea — “church porch”
  3. derived from galeria — “gallery”
  4. derived from galerie
  5. derived from galerie
  6. inherited from galery
  7. compounded as rogues' gallery — “rogue + gallery”

Definitions

  1. A set of pictures of convicted or suspected criminals used in law enforcement…

    A set of pictures of convicted or suspected criminals used in law enforcement investigations to help witnesses identify suspects.

    • "Recognize these people?" Dutch asked, pointing to the rogues' gallery. I nodded. "All of 'em. Cutthroats to the man."

  2. Any group of lawbreakers or other disreputable characters.

    • By 1859, D. Morier Evans was exhibiting [George] Hudson as the principal character in his rogues' gallery entitled "Facts, Failures and Frauds"; and at the hands of modern economic historians he has been written down as a common swindler.
    • The old staple of every demonstration: gully gully may shor hai, Congress Party chor hai—the cry goes up in every alley, Congress Party is a 'rogues' gallery—was very much in evidence.

  3. The set of supervillains associated with a particular superhero or comic book title.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for rogues' gallery. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA