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peasant

[pez-uhnt]

noun

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.

a coarse, unsophisticated, boorish, uneducated person of little financial means.

adjective

of, pertaining to, or characteristic of peasants or their traditions, way of life, crafts, etc.

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.

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Peasant is always a great word to know.

So is lollapalooza. Does it mean:

an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.

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Origin:
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 (see -ing³)

Related forms

peas·ant·like, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To peasant

Example Sentences

Fox was forced to abandon those plans by peasant farmers living there.

Most new profs live in a manner befitting a peasant.

The president's promises have encouraged both genuine peasant groups and opportunists to invade farms.

EXPAND

Fox was forced to abandon those plans by peasant farmers living there.

Most new profs live in a manner befitting a peasant.

The president's promises have encouraged both genuine peasant groups and opportunists to invade farms.

Many of the fossils have been collected and sold by peasant farmers.

They went from poor to rich in hal a century, and they definitely didn't do it with peasant farming.

Persians brought the game here a thousand years ago, and it has been favored by prince and peasant ever since.

It is not the infant playing at the hearth but the hungry landless peasant twenty years later who causes the conflict.

Their acting is interrupted by a violent peasant uprising, which kills many of their number.

Samurai defending a peasant village detect a weak spot in their fortifications.

Peasant farmers, transport workers and civic groups have staged their own protests.

Anywhere, any season, the poorest peasant can know the time.

From that point on, the women wore peasant blouses or flannel shirts, and the seminar was terrific.

There, it affects every section of the population-slum-dweller and sophisticate, peasant and professional.

Serve with fresh, white peasant bread, mashed potatoes and the sauerkraut salad.

Farmland is so scarce that a peasant with one acre is considered rich.

And he plans to trim the huge tax perks enjoyed by such pampered groups as peasant farmers, priests, policemen and journalists.

The shooting of a nun, active in environmental issues, raised tensions between land speculators and peasant settlers.

It is reportedly sheltered by peasant groups, drug traffickers and corrupt police.

Suppose a company tried to sell a crop insurance policy to a peasant farmer with a one-acre farm.

The dancers are dressed in brown and white peasant clothes to form a churning surface of sharply contrasting lights and darks.

And the peasant brain had simply been doing what the human brain does best:.

The past few years have seen an upsurge of peasant protests, many of them about the rapid encroachment of cities into rural land.

Most are peasant farmers who depend solely on rain for their crop production.

Suppose an insurance company tried to sell a crop insurance policy to a peasant farmer with a one-acre farm.

The simple peasant blouse he always wore hangs from a peg in his bedroom.

When shanks were served for dinner, it was a peasant meal.

Frankly, one accurate observation by a peasant can disprove decades of thoughts by brilliant minds.

But mostly the collection stayed as earthbound as peasant clogs in a muddy field.

Social movements, such as unions and peasant groups, form its political base.

In many peasant farming communities, men make women do much of the hard work.

To maintain the status quo against peasant insurgents and labor.

So peasant farmers are doubly squeezed by bad roads.

But outside the ramparts are scenes of everyday peasant life.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

peasant (ˈpɛz^ənt)

—n
1.	a. a member of a class of low social status that depends on either cottage industry or agricultural labour as a means of subsistence
	b. (as modifier): peasant dress
2.	informal a person who lives in the country; rustic
3.	informal an uncouth or uncultured person

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

peasant

c.1410, from Anglo-Fr. paisant (1341), O.Fr. paisent (12c.), earlier paisenc, from pais "country, region" + Frank. suffix -enc "-ing." Pais is from L.L. pagensis "inhabitant of the district," from L. pagus "country or rural district" (see pagan). Peasantry is attested from c.1553.

American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

peasant definition

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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"Cassoulet, that best of bean feasts, is everyday fare for a peasant but ambrosia for a gastronome, though its ideal consumer is a 300-pound blocking back who has been splitting firewood nonstop for the last twelve hours on a subzero day in Manitoba."

-Julia Child

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