Definition of peasant
1 : a member of a European class of persons tilling the soil as small landowners or as laborers This land was farmed by peasants for centuriess.; also : a member of a similar class elsewhere
2 : a usually uneducated person of low social status They treated us like a bunch of peasants.
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Examples of peasant in a Sentence
They treated us like a bunch of peasants.
Recent Examples of peasant from the Web
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The source of Birch’s screenplay, a short story by 19th-century Russian writer Nikolai Leskov, has the robust wisdom of a peasant myth.
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Cream was a part of the diet of the peasants, and the combination was seen as unifying the rich and the poor, the equivalent of the Cawley Family eating with Miss Patmore, Daisy and the rest of the gang in the Downton basement.
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The alternative, of course, is to wield a (preferably extendable) snow brush like a peasant who has no business owning a Range Rover.
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Top: Caroline Constas off-the-shoulder peasant top, $395, Neiman Marcus Fort Worth.
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Anthropologists discovered similar concretely bound reasoning among Uzbek peasants way back in the 1930s; legions of whites in America have grown up in similar environments (as J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy eloquently testifies).
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Across much of Asia, peasants and soldiers used to bang drums and shoot arrows into the sky to chase away the dragon that was eating the sun, according to Brewer’s book.
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One who seems to exclusively wear light-wash jeans, peasant blouses, and breezy linen dresses.
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That was why, Metchnikoff believed, Bulgarian peasants who regularly drank sour milk would often become centenarians.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'peasant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of peasant
Middle English paissaunt, from Anglo-French paisant, pesaunt, from pais, paiis country, from Late Latin pagensis inhabitant of a district, from Latin pagus district; akin to Latin pangere to fix — more at pact
PEASANT Defined for English Language Learners
peasant
playDefinition of peasant for English Language Learners
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: a poor farmer or farm worker who has low social status
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: a person who is not educated and has low social status
PEASANT Defined for Kids
peasant
playDefinition of peasant for Students
: a farmer or farm worker of low social class
Learn More about peasant
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See words that rhyme with peasant Spanish Central: Translation of peasant Nglish: Translation of peasant for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of peasant for Arabic speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about peasant
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