as in bumpkin
an awkward or simple person especially from a small town or the country
city dwellers who looked down on their cousins from northern Maine as hicks
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in hickish
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
2
as in unsophisticated
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of hick
Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2021
Rimac moved to Germany at age 2 and then to an independent Croatia in his early teens, where he was teased for his hick Bosnian accent.
—Ben Oliver, Robb Report, 3 Oct. 2021
Matt Grobar, Deadline, 25 June 2024
Roxxxy, who is from Florida, rightly notes that Floridian redneck is not the stereotypical hick that Vanjie and Angie went with, but then doesn’t stand on business when Vanjie overhears.
—Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 7 June 2024
See All Example Sentences for hick
Noun
One is a sick herb; the other is a hick Serb.
—Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2021
Rimac moved to Germany at age 2 and then to an independent Croatia in his early teens, where he was teased for his hick Bosnian accent.
—Ben Oliver, Robb Report, 3 Oct. 2021
Adjective
In the special, taped at Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV, Kober brings audiences together with stories about dealing with hometown hicks, unforgiving fruit flies and California candy cartels.
—Matt Grobar, Deadline, 25 June 2024
Roxxxy, who is from Florida, rightly notes that Floridian redneck is not the stereotypical hick that Vanjie and Angie went with, but then doesn’t stand on business when Vanjie overhears.
—Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 7 June 2024
See All Example Sentences for hick
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hick
Noun
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Ma and Pa Kent are the most stereotypical country bumpkins imaginable.—
Erik Kain,
Forbes.com,
9 July 2025
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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
Adjective
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And there’s been this story that retail investors are unsophisticated.—
Fortune Editors,
Fortune,
27 Aug. 2025
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Police describe it as a brazen, unsophisticated robbery that occurred around 5:30 p.m. on June 18, targeting a jewelry store on the 5100 block of Mowry Avenue in Fremont.—
Nate Gartrell,
Mercury News,
7 Aug. 2025
Noun
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It was adapted into a huge hit movie starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, but the breakout characters were local yokels Ma and Pa Kettle, who went on to star in eight spinoff movies.—
Brian Boone,
Vulture,
18 June 2025
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To the yokel who makes his donations in cash and is proud of himself for knowing what LEO stands for.—
Ticked Off,
The Orlando Sentinel,
15 June 2025
Adjective
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As darkness fell, Price, sometimes with a guitar and sometimes a tambourine and sometimes just the mic, served as a fun bridge between the rootsy afternoon sound and the both increasingly folksy Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Dave Matthews (and Tim Reynolds) and John Mellencamp.—
Jared Kaufman,
Twin Cities,
21 Sep. 2025
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Regardless of any tumult in the world, and in Minnesota specifically, the state fair has remained a fortress of nostalgia and folksy civic cheer.—
Hannah Goldfield,
New Yorker,
8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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That is less exciting, but the betting market is less reactionary to the results of big games, especially compared to when teams had to be near perfect to get in the College Football Playoff.—
Dan Santaromita,
New York Times,
30 Sep. 2025
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That Watson hasn’t used these moments of victimhood to become reactionary is part of what seems to anger Rowling.—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
29 Sep. 2025
Noun
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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
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The movie depicts Nashville as a town full of hayseeds who are bamboozled by the fast-talking Reynolds.—
Keith Sharon,
Nashville Tennessean,
2 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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At the time, the two girls were seen as rivals, with Debbie’s theatrical voice vs. Tiffany’s countrified yowl.—
Rob Sheffield,
Rolling Stone,
14 Sep. 2025
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Its twanging guitars and pounding drums scan as countrified classic rock, but every element seems muffled, as if emanating from an iPhone lost in a couch.—
Spencer Kornhaber,
The Atlantic,
26 July 2025
Noun
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As for partisan rubes like Senator Van Hollen, Maryland can do better.—
Chris Roemer,
Baltimore Sun,
26 June 2025
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There was no quintessential American, so Twain imagined him: a wily rube, cynical toward the same refinements of Europe that inspired awe in him.—
Caity Weaver,
The Atlantic,
5 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Hick.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hick. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
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