The meaning of PEASANT is a member of a European class of persons tilling the soil as small landowners or as laborers; also : a member of a similar class elsewhere.
Though "peasant" is a word of loose application, once a market economy had taken root, the term peasant proprietors was frequently used to describe the traditional rural population in countries where smallholders farmed much of the land.
peasant, any member of a class of persons who till the soil as small landowners or as agricultural labourers. The term peasant originally referred to small-scale agriculturalists in Europe in historic times, but many other societies, both past and present, have had a peasant class.
PEASANT definition: 1. a person who owns or rents a small piece of land and grows crops, keeps animals, etc. on it…. Learn more.
PEASANT definition: a member of a class of persons, as in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, who are small farmers or farm laborers of low social rank. See examples of peasant used in a sentence.
- a member of a class of small farmers or farm laborers of low social rank, as in Europe, Asia, or Latin America. 2. a coarse, uneducated person. 3. of or characteristic of peasants or their way of life. 4. modeled on the folk costumes of Western cultures: peasant blouses.
Definition of peasant noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.
peasant, n. & adj. meanings, etymology, pronunciation and more in the Oxford English Dictionary