churl

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O churl -- drink all, and leave no friendly drop

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Definitions (15)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun A rude, boorish person. See Synonyms at boor.
  2. noun A miserly person.
  3. noun A ceorl.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (50)

  • “The instruments of the churl are evil, but the liberal deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand,” Isa. —  The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
  • There is no mention of God_, except in idle swearing and cursing; whereas the poor and the sick_, who know nothing of ease, have God in their mouths and their hearts every minute But go ye also in the rear of her, and keep every body in his sleep and his rest, in prosperity and comfort, abundance and carelessness; and then you will see the poor honest man, as soon as he shall drink of the alluring cup of Ease, become a perverse, proud, untractable churl--the industrious labourer change into a careless, waggish rattler--and every other person become just what you would desire him. —  The Sleeping Bard or, Visions of the World, Death, and Hell
  • On the morrow the lady discovers her paramour to be a churl, and he is led away to execution, but escapes by juggling himself into a meal-bag: the dust falls in the lady's eye It would doubtless require a skilled folk-lorist to supply full critical notes and parallels; but I subjoin such details as I have been able to collect In The Beggar Laddie (Child, No. —  Ballads of Scottish Tradition and Romance Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Third Series
  • The Hawaiian sat down to meat before an open door; he ate his food in the sight of all men, and it was only one who dared being denounced as a churl who would fail to invite with word and gesture the passer-by to come in and share with him. —  Unwritten Literature of Hawaii The Sacred Songs of the Hula
  • Caius knew that the farmer, Day by name, was a churl, and was said to keep his family on short rations of happiness. —  The Mermaid A Love Tale
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

lout ·  bumpkin ·  lubber ·  simpleton ·  yokel ·  scamp ·  curmudgeon ·  wretch ·  knave ·  looby ·  boor ·  ruffian
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English ceorl, peasant.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English churl, usually cherl, cheorl, from Anglo-Saxon ceorl, a man, husband, freeman of the lowest rank, churl, = OFries. kerl (in comp. hūskerl), modern Friesic tzerl, tzirl= Old Dutch keerle, Dutch kerel, a man, churl, fellow, = Middle Low German kerle, Low German kerl, kerel, kirl (later G. kerl), a man, fellow, churl: see carl.
 

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/tʃərl/
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