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View synonyms for peasant

peasant

[ pez-uhnt ]

noun

  1. a member of a class of persons, as in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, who are small farmers or farm laborers of low social rank.
  2. a coarse, unsophisticated, boorish, uneducated person of little financial means.


adjective

  1. of, relating to, or characteristic of peasants or their traditions, way of life, crafts, etc.
  2. of or designating a style of clothing modeled on the folk costumes of Western cultures, especially women's full-sleeved, round-necked blouses and long, full skirts.

peasant

/ ˈpɛzənt /

noun

    1. a member of a class of low social status that depends on either cottage industry or agricultural labour as a means of subsistence
    2. ( as modifier )

      peasant dress

  1. informal.
    a person who lives in the country; rustic
  2. informal.
    an uncouth or uncultured person


peasant

  1. A farmer or agricultural worker of low status . The word is applied chiefly to agricultural workers in Asia , Europe , and South America , who generally adhere to traditional agricultural practices and have little social mobility or freedom.


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Other Words From

  • peasant·like adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of peasant1

1375–1425; late Middle English paissaunt < Anglo-French paisant, Old French païsant, earlier païsenc, equivalent to païs country (< Late Latin pāgēnsis, equivalent to Latin pāg ( us ) country district + -ēnsis -ensis ) + -enc < Germanic ( -ing 3 )

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Word History and Origins

Origin of peasant1

C15: from Anglo-French, from Old French païsant, from païs country, from Latin pāgus rural area; see pagan

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Example Sentences

He was a large man, totally bald, with the rough hands of a peasant.

After wandering at haphazard some little way I met a peasant in a sleigh.

Some “new men” from peasant and artisan backgrounds rose, but many others became part of an impoverished proletariat.

Pretty well by Russian standards—a free peasant was known as a smerd, meaning “stinker.”

Entertaining used to require intelligence or a measure of wit or, at least, peasant cunning.

But the observation he thoughtlessly uttered in French seemed to excite the peasant's attention.

She was the daughter of a peasant of Livonia, married a Swedish dragoon, who was killed on the same day in battle.

In a springtime landscape a young peasant girl is seated beneath a tree, looking before her over a sunlit plain.

The king smiled, and remembering his past pleasures, ordered a thousand crowns to the peasant.

He was the fourth son of a peasant proprietor of Lectourne, a little town on the slopes of the Pyrenees.

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Peary, Robert E.peasant proprietor