PEASANT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does peasant mean? 

• PEASANT (noun)
  The noun PEASANT has 3 senses:

1. a country person

2. one of a (chiefly European) class of agricultural laborers

3. a crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement

  Familiarity information: PEASANT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PEASANT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A country person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bucolic; peasant; provincial

Hypernyms ("peasant" is a kind of...):

rustic (an unsophisticated country person)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "peasant"):

cottar; cotter (a peasant farmer in the Scottish Highlands)

moujik; mujik; muzhik; muzjik (a Russian peasant (especially prior to 1917))

Derivation:

peasanthood (the state of being a peasant)

Sense 2

Meaning:

One of a (chiefly European) class of agricultural laborers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("peasant" is a kind of...):

agricultural laborer; agricultural labourer (a person who tills the soil for a living)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "peasant"):

fellah (an agricultural laborer in Arab countries)

Holonyms ("peasant" is a member of...):

peasantry (the class of peasants)

Derivation:

peasanthood (the state of being a peasant)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

barbarian; boor; churl; Goth; peasant; tike; tyke

Hypernyms ("peasant" is a kind of...):

disagreeable person; unpleasant person (a person who is not pleasant or agreeable)

 Context examples 

The first was empty, but at the head of the second stood a peasant sentry, who started off at the sight of them, yelling loudly to his comrades.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But the little peasant said: “Oh, but I must have my beast back again.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

They came of generations of poor unlettered people—peasants of the sea who sowed their sons on the waves as has been their custom since time began.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The untaught peasant beheld the elements around him and was acquainted with their practical uses.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Bah! what good are peasants without a leader?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I brought the peasant across, and Holmes dispatched the frightened man with a note to Dr. Huxtable.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Early that morning a peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes’ ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their whereabouts.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I must not forget that these coarsely-clad little peasants are of flesh and blood as good as the scions of gentlest genealogy; and that the germs of native excellence, refinement, intelligence, kind feeling, are as likely to exist in their hearts as in those of the best-born.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I don't think you have read ten pages of Spencer, but there have been critics, assumably more intelligent than you, who have read no more than you of Spencer, who publicly challenged his followers to adduce one single idea from all his writings—from Herbert Spencer's writings, the man who has impressed the stamp of his genius over the whole field of scientific research and modern thought; the father of psychology; the man who revolutionized pedagogy, so that to-day the child of the French peasant is taught the three R's according to principles laid down by him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The peasant ate it, and lay down with his skin beside him, and the woman thought: “He is tired and has gone to sleep.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)