VILLEIN

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does villein mean? 

• VILLEIN (noun)
  The noun VILLEIN has 1 sense:

1. (Middle Ages) a person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord

  Familiarity information: VILLEIN used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VILLEIN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(Middle Ages) a person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

helot; serf; villein

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

thrall (someone held in bondage)

Domain category:

Dark Ages; Middle Ages (the period of history between classical antiquity and the Italian Renaissance)

Domain region:

Europe (the 2nd smallest continent (actually a vast peninsula of Eurasia); the British use 'Europe' to refer to all of the continent except the British Isles)

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

cotter; cottier (a medieval English villein)

 Context examples 

The villein took the cruel blow without wince or cry, as one to whom stripes are a birthright and an inheritance.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I have in good sooth,” Alleyne answered, and then as they journeyed on their way he told them the many things that had befallen him, his meeting with the villein, his sight of the king, his coming upon his brother, with all the tale of the black welcome and of the fair damsel.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The talk of laborer, woodman and villein in the inn had all pointed to the wide-spread mutiny, and now his brother's name was spoken as though he were the very centre of the universal discontent.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The four on this side are all workers, three of them in the service of the bailiff of Sir Baldwin Redvers, and the other, he with the sheepskin, is, as I hear, a villein from the midlands who hath run from his master.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)