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 Long before the official ban on private farming was lifted in 1982, peasants across China spontaneously reintroduced private ownership in defiance of socialist doctrine. — Rainer Zitelmann, Space.com, 11 Aug. 2026 Get the look by styling a simple black mini skirt with a blouse, like this peasant top, which is an easy summer-to-fall piece. — Melony Forcier, InStyle, 10 Aug. 2026 His mother was a dark-skinned granddaughter of Saint Ann’s enslaved whose peasant kin farmed dasheen and yams. — Literary Hub, 5 Aug. 2026 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 See All Example Sentences for peasant
Recent Examples of Synonyms for peasant
  1. clown
  2. provincial
  3. peon
  4. gawk
  5. mountaineer
Noun
  • But my favorite Tim Curry performance will always be Pennywise, the clown in Tommy Lee Wallace’s 1990 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s It, which, compared to Andy Muschietti’s mega popular pair of films, is modest, even a little lame.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2026
  • Curry, who died Tuesday at 80, made a gleefully evil turn as a clown that sparked nightmares for legions of Gen X and millennial viewers that continue to haunt to this day.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 26 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 bodies of two Belgian mountaineers who went missing in the Swiss Alps more than three decades ago have been found, officials said.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 20 Aug. 2026
  • The most recent example occurred July 26 when a hiker on the Trift Glacier discovered the remains of two mountaineers who had been missing since 1992 – according to Swiss police.
    — James Powel, USA Today, 20 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 1 Sep. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on peasant

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about peasant

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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