Yahoos

Cultural  

1. The crude, dirty “brutes” of the land of the Houyhnhnms in Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift. The Yahoos are irrational people and represent the worst side of humanity. By contrast, the wise and gentle Houyhnhnms, their masters, are rational horses and represent humanity at its best.

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A “yahoo” is an uncouth or uncivilized person.

Example Sentences

You’re doing all the right stuff by yourself, and you’re among professionals, medical professionals, not Yahoos, and you can still have someone else make a mistake and your life is gone.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 13, 2026

The Yahoos amplify all of humanity's worst traits, and through them Swift challenges the anthropocentric view of the world in a way that seems very modern.

From Nature • Sep. 26, 2017

In some coastal journalistic circles, producer Brian Reed stands accused of exploiting McLemore and other residents of Woodstock, like Gulliver descended among the Yahoos.

From The Guardian • Apr. 9, 2017

Those benefits are really only a trademark of the big guys—the Facebooks, Apples, Googles and Yahoos of Silicon Valley.

From Time • Aug. 5, 2015

Curiously enough, also, it was Swift’s belief that, Yahoos though we are, the world is always in the right.

From The Three Devils: Luther's, Milton's, and Goethe's With Other Essays by Masson, David