noun General Slang

Droog

/druːɡ/ · noun · slang

A Nadsat word for a friend or running mate, anglicised from the Russian for friend.

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Definitions

1

By extension, a member of a loyal crew or pack who roams and causes trouble together, with the loyalty more tribal than tender.

“'There were four of us, my droogs and me' sets up the gang as a single unit.”
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2

In the Nadsat argot of Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange (1962), a droog is a friend, mate, or member of one's gang. Source word: Russian 'drug' (друг), literally 'friend'.

“Alex addresses Pete, Georgie, and Dim as 'my droogs' in the novel's opening pages.”
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3

Used loosely in fan and pop-culture circles as an affectionate, faintly menacing word for a companion.

“He calls his bandmates his droogs, half as a joke about the Kubrick film.”
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Droog In A Sentence

Stick with your droogs and the night belongs to you.
Three droogs in bowler hats is unmistakably a Clockwork Orange reference.
He betrayed his own droogs the moment the millicents showed up.

Origin & Usage

Coined by Anthony Burgess in A Clockwork Orange (1962); anglicised from Russian 'drug' (друг), 'friend'. Burgess built most of Nadsat from Russian roots to estrange the reader, as he explained in his essay 'Clockwork Marmalade' (1972).

Variants droogsdroogie
Tags #nadsat#clockwork-orange#fictional#literary#friendship

People Also Ask

What does droog mean?

It is Nadsat slang for a friend or gang member, taken by Burgess from the Russian word 'drug', meaning friend.

Is droog a real word?

It is a fictional argot word invented for A Clockwork Orange, though its root, Russian 'drug', is genuine.

Where did droog come from?

Anthony Burgess constructed it in 1962 by anglicising the Russian 'drug' as part of his teen slang Nadsat.

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