Definitions
peasantry Tweet Definition of peasantry Like Definition of peasantry on Facebook
noun (peasantr, ies)
  1. (historical) Impoverished rural farm workers, either as serfs, small freeholders or hired hands.
1920 They distressed her. They were so stolid. She had always maintained that there is no American , and she sought now to defend her faith by seeing imagination and enterprise in the young Swedish farmers, and in a traveling man working over his order-blanks. But the older people, Yankees as well as Norwegians, Germans, Finns, Canucks, had settled into submission to poverty. They were peasants, she groaned. " Sinclair Lewis, ''Main Street", http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=432547567&tag=Lewis,+Sinclair:+Main+Street,+1920&query=peasantry&id=LewMain Chapter 3.
  1. An ignorant person of the lowest social status; bumpkins, rustics.
1885 Such strange lingering echoes of the old demon worship might perhaps even now be caught by the diligent listener among the gray-haired ; for the rude mind with difficulty associates the ideas of power and benignity. " George Eliot, Silas Marner, http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=290533291&tag=Eliot,+George:+Silas+Marner+(1885)&query=peasantry&id=Eli2Sil Chapter 1.
Translations: 
  • Spanish: campesinado
Etymology: Middle English paissaunt


Supplemental Details:Sponsor an extended definition for peasantry for as little as $10 per month. Click here to contact us.

     
  

 Find:
  Words Starting With:
  Words Ending With:
  Words Containing:
  Words That Match:

 
 Translate Into:
  
Dutch   French   German
  
Italian   Spanish
    Show results per page.

Browse the Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

   
Dictionary content provided from Wiktionary.org under the GNU Free Documentation License
Allwords Copyright 1998-2024 All rights reserved.