peasant

noun

Definition of peasantnext
as in clown
a person of low social status Those snobs treat anyone who lives on the "wrong" side of town like an insignificant peasant.

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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 peasant The police suspect Juggut Singh, a Sikh peasant with a criminal record who, on the night of the killing, was secretly meeting Nooran, the daughter of a Muslim priest and weaver. — Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 July 2026 While any peasant blouse or billowy eyelet top will do the trick, there’s something so romantic and eye-catching about an asymmetrical shirt with black jorts. — Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 23 July 2026 Capitalizing on the tide of anti-Rhaenyra sentiment rising among the peasants of King's Landing, Ormund plots to sow further unrest by paying off a band of smallfolk to brutally torture and kill members of the City Watch. — Megan McCluskey, Time, 20 July 2026 The historian Eugen Weber wrote influentially of how peasants who spoke languages like Occitan, Breton, or Basque became—or, more honestly, were made—Frenchmen. — Nikhil Krishnan, New Yorker, 20 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for peasant
Recent Examples of Synonyms for peasant
  1. clown
  2. provincial
  3. peon
  4. gawk
  5. mountaineer
Noun
  • There’s deeply brutal local lore, endless cornfields and teenagers trying to escape a killer clown.
    — Alaina Urquhart, PEOPLE, 11 Aug. 2026
  • An Illinois teen has been charged with first-degree murder after allegedly committing a deadly stabbing attack while dressed in a clown outfit.
    — Nadine El-Bawab, ABC News, 7 Aug. 2026
Definition of clown
Noun
  • Marlowe, the son of a poor Canterbury cobbler, and Shakespeare, the son of a Stratford glover and alderman, were both unlikely artistic geniuses, provincials in a nation in which social class was rigidly fixed.
    — Heller McAlpin, Christian Science Monitor, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Sanders is a Catholic priest and former Augustinian provincial in California and lives in the Augustinian community in North Park.
    — Gary Sanders, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 May 2025
Definition of provincial
Noun
  • 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.
    — Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic, 19 Apr. 2024
Definition of peon
Noun
  • Carrie raves to Seema about her creative connection with Duncan, and during another writing session, Duncan helps Carrie with her faulty printer and gawks at her closet full of designer dresses and shoes.
    — Dave Nemetz, TVLine, 31 July 2025
  • The badaud, by contrast, is always liable to form a group or crowd, either for a mass gawk or some communal response.
    — Julian Barnes, The New York Review of Books, 27 Apr. 2022
Definition of gawk
Noun
  • The recovery came two days after mountaineers, diplomats and members of civil society attended a candlelight vigil in Pakistan's capital Islamabad to honor the climbers.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 13 Aug. 2026
  • The 43-year-old was among 10 mountaineers who went missing on Thursday after they were believed to have been on the 8,047-meter-tall Broad Peak, in northern Pakistan, when a landslide hit around midday local time.
    — Sophia Saifi, CNN Money, 1 Aug. 2026
Definition of mountaineer

Browse Nearby Words

pearls
peasant
peasantry
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Cite this Entry

“Peasant.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/peasant. Accessed 19 Aug. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on peasant

Nglish: Translation of peasant for Spanish Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about peasant

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