as in hick
an awkward or simple person especially from a small town or the country
though educated and sophisticated, the country singer always put on the facade of an amiable hayseed when in public
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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 hayseed
Baby Billy’s first full-frontal scene is more a testament to Walton Goggins’s incredible hayseed bravado in the rule.
—
Scott Tobias, Vulture, 31 Mar. 2025
Mantle was the voluble hayseed from Oklahoma who could hit anything but was corrupted by the big city, and wound up undone by alcohol and knee injuries.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 21 June 2024
Today, the variety shows’ wise-clown hayseeds (overalls, prosthetic teeth, silly hats, no shoes) are the ones who get all the good lines, whose material is distinctive in its political sensibility and cultural hobbyhorses.
—Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper's Magazine, 30 Mar. 2024
Lilly’s bequest was big enough to impress the hayseeds at the feed store, but, as the magazine’s editor, Wiman was making only sixty thousand dollars a year.
—Casey Cep, The New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2023
Grey Henson and Ashley D. Kelley as the gleeful Storytellers, Kevin Cahoon as a hayseed philosopher and Caroline Innerbichler as the requisite ingenue all joyfully indulge the cheeky, harmlessly off-color vibe.
—Peter Marks, Washington Post, 20 Apr. 2023
Sort of like how Axl Rose is some hayseed with chops like Chopin.
—Mike Postalakis, SPIN, 3 Aug. 2022
To share the workload, and also to teach him how to do everything, Jeremy brings on an uneducated 21-year-old blond hayseed named Kaleb who sports a series of increasingly dire haircuts as the series goes on.
—Kyle Smith, National Review, 8 Aug. 2021
Callum Scott Howells is another standout as Colin, a Welsh hayseed who’s wonderstruck by city life.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 11 Mar. 2021
Scott Tobias, Vulture, 31 Mar. 2025
Mantle was the voluble hayseed from Oklahoma who could hit anything but was corrupted by the big city, and wound up undone by alcohol and knee injuries.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 21 June 2024
Today, the variety shows’ wise-clown hayseeds (overalls, prosthetic teeth, silly hats, no shoes) are the ones who get all the good lines, whose material is distinctive in its political sensibility and cultural hobbyhorses.
—Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper's Magazine, 30 Mar. 2024
Lilly’s bequest was big enough to impress the hayseeds at the feed store, but, as the magazine’s editor, Wiman was making only sixty thousand dollars a year.
—Casey Cep, The New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2023
Grey Henson and Ashley D. Kelley as the gleeful Storytellers, Kevin Cahoon as a hayseed philosopher and Caroline Innerbichler as the requisite ingenue all joyfully indulge the cheeky, harmlessly off-color vibe.
—Peter Marks, Washington Post, 20 Apr. 2023
Sort of like how Axl Rose is some hayseed with chops like Chopin.
—Mike Postalakis, SPIN, 3 Aug. 2022
To share the workload, and also to teach him how to do everything, Jeremy brings on an uneducated 21-year-old blond hayseed named Kaleb who sports a series of increasingly dire haircuts as the series goes on.
—Kyle Smith, National Review, 8 Aug. 2021
Callum Scott Howells is another standout as Colin, a Welsh hayseed who’s wonderstruck by city life.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 11 Mar. 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hayseed
Noun
-
Sorrentino may also be exorcising some conflicting feelings about his birthplace, which is portrayed as a vulgar, crude place populated by crooks and hicks and photographed like its paradise.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
7 Feb. 2025
-
In first grade, when a teacher called him a hick, Ciotti threw an inkwell at her.—
D. T. Max,
The New Yorker,
23 Sep. 2024
Noun
-
Florida yokels versus the elite Hollywood movie-star kind of group.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
26 July 2024
-
Ben’s refusal to stand down for a middle-aged white man seeking to wrest power from him was radical, as was the film’s ending, in which the hero was shot by yokels failing to distinguish him from the zombies previously described as animals.—
Richard Newby,
The Hollywood Reporter,
23 Oct. 2024
Noun
-
Going to the Ron Burgundy–Ricky Bobby idiot well one time too many, Ferrell plays Cam Brady, a lazy, cynical longtime congressman running against a local bumpkin (Galifianakis).—
Tim Grierson,
Vulture,
4 Feb. 2025
-
Carter, perhaps the most decent man to ever occupy the Oval Office, was long written off as a country bumpkin, one who perhaps unsurprisingly left office as a one-term anomaly.—
Philip Elliott,
TIME,
9 Jan. 2025
Noun
-
The Gospel authors, far from being community leaders preserving oral sayings for largely illiterate followers, were highly literate members of a small, erudite upper crust, distant in experience, attitude, and geography from any Galilean peasant preachers.—
Adam Gopnik,
The New Yorker,
24 Mar. 2025
-
Set in the Alentejo region of southern Portugal, where Mateus was raised, a peasant community of grape-pickers become agents in an open-air ritual of remembrance and rebellion.—
Zac Ntim,
Deadline,
26 Feb. 2025
Noun
-
This removed one of the last obstacles preventing poor provincials from governing the empire.—
Jeffrey E. Schulman / Made by History,
TIME,
20 Dec. 2024
-
While early imperial aristocrats saw provincials as subject nations with their own cultures, their working-class replacements considered Romans a single people and expected all to share the same values.—
Jeffrey E. Schulman / Made by History,
TIME,
20 Dec. 2024
Noun
-
The latest scheme is to create a 2.5% business-to-business tax, a tax hidden in the costs of businesses so that those rubes also known as voters may not notice it.—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
18 Mar. 2025
-
Walsh’s male fantasists—the nameless rubes of Ballyturk, the desperate suitors of Penelope, even the heartbroken father at the center of Grief Is the Thing With Feathers—get to strut and bluster and scream into the wind.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
23 Feb. 2025
Noun
-
In real time, the audience, the queens watching, and perhaps Suzie herself all learn that Suzie has a knack for sexiness onstage, even though she’s dressed as a clown.—
Jason P. Frank,
Vulture,
12 Apr. 2025
-
Among the mass-shooting victims is a bloodied clown who was performing at the festival.—
James Poniewozik,
New York Times,
11 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Classical Rudersdal, Denmark, situated beside Copenhagen and along the open coast, exists in a perpetual tug-of-war between the rustic and the modern.—
Helen Shaw,
New Yorker,
11 Apr. 2025
-
Off-mountain: Skiers who prefer to stay overnight in nearby Driggs, Idaho (a 20-minute drive from Grand Targhee) have a few rustic, albeit comfortable, possibilities.—
Lydia Mansel,
Travel + Leisure,
30 Dec. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Hayseed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hayseed. Accessed 28 Apr. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share