as in bumpkins
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
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Recent Examples of hicks
So a bunch of hicks from Topeka were left up to our own devices of going down to Robert Hall and finding something that might be kind of cool.
—
Devon Ivie, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2026
Devon Ivie, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hicks
Noun
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Simply put, the small-town bumpkins from North Florida who support this idea should be made to pay for it.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
18 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
His paternal grandparents were peasants in Transylvania; his maternal grandparents were also peasants, and his grandmother was illiterate.—
Rebecca Mead,
New Yorker,
13 Apr. 2026
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The peasants looked different, weathered.—
Michael Sheridan,
Vanity Fair,
8 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Once completed, the $5 million acquisition will ensure the theater has a permanent home, a place where skateboarding clowns and leek-haired onions can continue to frolic and dance for decades to come.—
Todd Martens,
Los Angeles Times,
13 Apr. 2026
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Plot details are being kept under wraps, though the film has been described as a four-quadrant coming-of-age comedy set in the world of funny and evil clowns.—
Matt Grobar,
Deadline,
7 Apr. 2026
Noun
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All those unsuspecting rubes with no idea what’s about to hit them.—
Joe Hagan,
Vanity Fair,
18 Mar. 2026
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That set-up makes Cole relatively unique among prediction markets’ headliners, many of whom are suspected of exploiting insider info to dupe rubes for short-term gains.—
Joe Wilkins,
Futurism,
26 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Using his Hollywood makeup father’s prosthetics, Holliday transforms himself into hayseed-like Chad Powers.—
Baz Bamigboye,
Deadline,
30 Sep. 2025
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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
Noun
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The all-new Sip Essential takes the company's longstanding personal filter straw format and halves weight, ensuring that even the lightest-traveling speed hikers and mountaineers don't find themselves up a creek without a filter.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
15 Apr. 2026
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Another recall targets Petzl Nomic and Ergonomic ice climbing axes, which are widely used by ice climbers and mountaineers.—
Amanda Greenwood,
MSNBC Newsweek,
29 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Like many of his countrymen, the young Afghan crossed into EU-member Poland from Belarus and managed to reach Germany, where he was arrested and then returned to Poland to have his asylum request assessed under EU laws.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
14 Apr. 2026
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Hernandez was released from CECOT and sent to Venezulea along with 252 of his fellow countrymen in July 2025.—
Carlos De Loera,
Los Angeles Times,
1 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Hicks.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hicks. Accessed 23 Apr. 2026.
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