peasant

noun

peas·​ant ˈpe-zᵊnt 

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 centuries.

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.

Examples of peasant in a Sentence

They treated us like a bunch of peasants.

Recent Examples on the Web

Part 2: fifteen years later, while fleeing Petrograd, Nabokov’s father is accosted on a bridge by a gray-bearded peasant, who asks for a light and proves to be Kuropatkin in disguise. —Elif Batuman, New Yorker, 1 June 2025

By 1917 in Russia, housewives were marching in city streets to protest a lack of food, peasants were seizing land, and many Russians saw the czarist government as irrelevant, even treasonous. —Margaret MacMillan, The Atlantic, 30 Apr. 2025

What began in Manchester with an 1819 massacre of peasants gave birth to the world's first workers' movements, trade unions and an idea of equality that has fueled social justice and labor movements around the world. —Lauren Frayer, NPR, 19 Apr. 2025

French peasants at work, rendered with maximum sentiment by the likes of Jean-François Millet. —Blake Gopnik, Newsweek, 19 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

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

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for peasant

• pheasant
• pleasant
• present
• omnipresent
• unpleasant

Kids Definition

peasant

noun

peas·​ant ˈpez-ᵊnt 

1

: a European small farmer or farm laborer

2

: a member of a similar agricultural class elsewhere