Idiom
rogues' gallery
Meaning
Any group of lawbreakers or other disreputable characters.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The police kept photos of the rogues' gallery on the wall.”
“Looking at the suspects in the lineup, the detective realized he was dealing with a complete rogues' gallery of local criminals.”
“The political scandal revealed a rogues' gallery of corrupt officials and lobbyists who had been manipulating the system for years.”
Examples
simple
“The police kept photos of the rogues' gallery on the wall.”
contextual
“Looking at the suspects in the lineup, the detective realized he was dealing with a complete rogues' gallery of local criminals.”
complex
“The political scandal revealed a rogues' gallery of corrupt officials and lobbyists who had been manipulating the system for years.”
Origin
From rogue + gallery. Popularized by American detectives Allan Pinkerton and Thomas F. Byrnes.
Key words
Related idioms
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