Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of cottarIn 1846 and 1847, potatoes, the subsistence crop of the cottar subtenants who composed nearly half the population on some Hebridean estates, failed almost entirely.—Hugh Raffles, The New York Review of Books, 9 Oct. 2020
In the dying days of the Russian Empire, highborn ladies would willingly cut the dirty fingernails of the peasant Grigori Rasputin and then sew the clippings onto their dresses like sacred talismans.
—
Gerard DeGroot,
Air Mail,
25 Apr. 2026
And that was to inspire, raise, and command armies of European Christians, including kings, commoners and peasants, to invade the Holy Land and free it from Muslim occupation.
Soon there was an altercation at the front desk, when a Haitian upbraided the American peons about not getting her free stuff fast enough.
—
Howie Carr,
Boston Herald,
8 Oct. 2025
Not only does the peon and con man Tom end up refashioning himself as the rich and carefree Dickie, but Highsmith’s novel itself was a retelling of Henry James’s The Ambassadors.