peasant

3 definitions • 4 examples

a person who owns or rents a small piece of land and grows crops, keeps animals, etc. on it, especially one who has a low income, very little education, and a low social position. This is usually used of someone who lived in the past or of someone in a poor country:

Tons of internationally donated food was distributed to the starving peasants.

Most of the produce sold in the market is grown by peasant farmers.

Peasant women with scarves around their heads were working in the fields.

a person who is not well educated or is rude and does not behave well:

Joe's a real peasant.

a member of a low social class of farm workers and owners of small farms