Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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noun
A free peasant (as opposed to a serf) of the lowest rank, below an earl and a thane; a freeman; also (more generally), a person without royal or noble status; a commoner.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: obsolete except historical
Topics: feudalism, government, politics
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A bondman or serf.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: obsolete except historical
Topics: feudalism, government, politics
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A rough, surly, ill-bred person; a boor.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly, derogatory
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: lout, yokel, bogan, boor, bumpkin, chawbacon, chuff, churl, clenchpoop, clown, cornball, jay, kern, lamb, lubber, rube, Tony Lumpkin, tyke, peasant, unsophisticate, yahoo, bogger, bogtrotter, bucolic, bydlo, culchie, carl, corncob, cornhusker, country bumpkin, country cousin, clodhopper, dubbo, joskin, hayseed, hick, hob, hobnail, hog-rubber, honyock, hunk, lob, promdi, provincial, rustic, woolly back
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A countryman, a peasant, a rustic.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, broadly
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: carl, fieldling, bucolic, churl, clown, country cousin, countryman, harlot, hob, rube, ruricolist, rustic, swain, peasant, whopstraw
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A person who is stingy, especially with money; a selfish miser, a niggard.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, broadly
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: carl, skinflint, cheapass, cheapie, cheapskate, cheapo, churl, clutchfist, el cheapo, last of the big spenders, magpie, miser, moneygrubber, muckworm, nickel nurser, nig, niggard, nigon, nipcheese, nipfarthing, penny-father, penny pincher, pickpenny, piker, pinch-commons, pinch-gut, pincher, pinchfist, pinchpenny, scrimp, scrooge, snudge, squirrel, tight-arse, tightwad
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A freedman, ranked below a thane but above a thrall.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a bad-tempered person
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: grouch, grump, crank, crosspatch
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: unpleasant person, disagreeable person
Narrower terms: crab, crabby person, fire-eater, hothead, misanthrope, misanthropist
noun
a selfish person who is unwilling to give or spend
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: niggard, skinflint, scrooge
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: hoarder
Narrower terms: pinchgut
noun
a crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: peasant, barbarian, boor, Goth, tyke, tike
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: unpleasant person, disagreeable person
History
Inherited from West Midland Middle English churle (“person not of the nobility or clergy; serf, servant, simpleton, fellow”, East Midland Middle English cherl), from Old English ċeorl (“freeman ranking below a þegn but above a thrall; commoner, peasant; countryman, husbandman; man; husband”), from Proto-West Germanic *kerl, from Proto-Germanic *karilaz (“elder; man”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵerh2- (“to grow old; to mature”). Doublet of carl /carle, ceorl, and karl. Sense 2.1 (“rough, surly, ill-bred person”) is probably an extension of sense 1 (“free peasant of the lowest rank; person without royal or noble status; bondman, serf”) and sense 2.2 (“countryman, peasant, rustic”). Sense 2.3 (“person who is stingy”) was influenced by Nabal, who is described in the King James Version of the Bible as “churlish and evil in his doings”; when Nabal, a rich man, is asked to give provisions to David’s men, he replies, “Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?” (1 Samuel 25:3 and 10–11; spelling modernized). Cognates * Danish karl (“fellow, young man, farmhand”) * Dutch kerel (“churl; fellow, man”) * Low German kerl, kerel, kirl (“churl; fellow, man”) * North Frisian tzierl, tjierl, tsjerl (“churl; fellow, man”) * Old High German charl, charlo (German Kerl (“fellow, man”)) * Old Norse karl (“man”) (Icelandic karl (“man”)) * Polish karzeł (“small man”) * Scots churl (“a churl; a rustic”) * Swedish karl (“fellow, man”) * West Frisian tsjirl (“churl; fellow, man”)
Across languages
35 source translations are retained for this English entry.
