Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A rude, boorish person. See Synonyms at boor.
- n. A miserly person.
- n. A ceorl.
- n. A medieval English peasant.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A rustic; a peasant; a countryman or laborer.
- n. Specifically In early English history, one of the lowest class of freemen; one who held land from or worked on the estate of his lord.
- n. A coarse, rude, surly, sullen, or ill-tempered person.
- n. A miser; a niggard.
- Churlish.
Wiktionary
- n. a boorish person; a peasant
- n. : a freedman, ranked below a thane but above a thrall
- n. ill-mannered lout
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A rustic; a countryman or laborer.
- n. A rough, surly, ill-bred man; a boor.
- n. A selfish miser; an illiberal person; a niggard.
- adj. obsolete Churlish; rough; selfish.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a selfish person who is unwilling to give or spend
- n. a bad-tempered person
- n. a crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement
Etymologies
- From Middle English churl, cherl, cheorl, from Old English ċeorl ("a freeman of the lowest class, a churl, a countryman, husbandman, a hero, husband, man, male person, a man of inferior class, peasant, rustic, commoner, layman"), from Proto-Germanic *karilaz (“man, elder”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵera-, *ǵrā- (“grown-up, old, mature”). Cognate with Scots churl ("a churl, a rustic"), North Frisian tzierl, tjierl, tsjerl ("fellow, man, churl"), West Frisian tsjirl ("fellow, churl"), Dutch kerel ("man, churl, fellow"), Low German kerl, kerel, kirl ("man, fellow, churl"), German Kerl ("man, fellow"), Swedish karl ("man, fellow"), Icelandic karl ("a male"). The deprecating sense develops by 1300. The variant carl, carle (without derogatory connotation) is a loan from the Old Norse cognate. See carl, carle. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old English ceorl, peasant. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“If he did, he would know that the word churl OE. ceorl m. is historically, and currently, loaded with class distinction.”
“Ceorle (whence our word churl) was a countryman or artisan who was a freeman.”
The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints January, February, March
“But when what distinguishes the hero from the churl is the choice of obedience or disobedience, then it is open to anyone at any time to become either.”
“The instruments of the churl are and always will be evil, but the liberal deviseth liberal things, Isa. xxxii.”
“Nabal was, a fool but for his money, shall not be complimented with the title of a gentleman or a prince; nor shall they call a churl, that minds none but himself, does no good with what he has, but is an unprofitable burden of the earth, My lord; or, rather, they shall not say of him, He is rich; for so the word signifies.”
“In one incident, an English "churl" who was renowned for weightlifting had a habit of challenging passers-by to hit him on the back with a board for 3 pence to see if it would cause any damage.”
“The "churl" had no rights which those in office were bound to respect.”
“To enforce this rule, here is a description both of the vile person and of the liberal; and by it we shall see such a vast difference between them that we must quite forget ourselves if we pay that respect to the vile person and the churl which is due only to the liberal.”
“If it takes a special kind of churl to be appalled at the sight of young people in love, then the studios have made sourpusses of us all.”
“12.4 For the proper mediæval horror of 'churl's blood,' see”
Ballads of Scottish Tradition and Romance Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Third Series
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘churl’.
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Bad Options
words for those who commit particular crimes: i.e., bank robber, arsonist, etc.
liar, cheat, traitor, arsonist, felon, braggard, thief, profiteer, impostor, phony, fraud, culprit and 212 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Unsavory characters
absconder, aretaloger, arriviste, avaunter, bamboozler, bandit, banger, barbarian, barmecide, barrator, beldam, blatherskite and 190 more...
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-ishness
I omit words such as thief, cad, or prude if a phoneme change or the addition or subtraction of a letter is required when combining with -ishness.
boor, self, child, wonk, man, dolt, Jew, oaf, Kurd, faint, fool, unself and 20 more...
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scoundrels and bastards
already several of these lists, but I wanted my own
varlet, scoundrel, ne'er-do-well, cad, thug, churl, boor, hooligan, bastard, slubberdegullion, dastard, tosspot and 85 more...
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Newly discovered
gambol, zabaglione, archness, gormless, chanteuse, plangent, churl, tonsure, métier, chordate, miscegenation, inchoate
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Enter the Rustics
A fanfare for the Common Man. Words for rustics, yokels, and woolhats of all sorts.
woolhat, yokel, rustic, hucklebuck, hick, redneck, bogan, goober, hayseed, bumpkin, countryman, peasant and 70 more...
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the brothers
factotem, extrapolation, antinomy, antenome, pusillanimous, capons, caftan, pejorative, cropper, cowl, perfidious, fichu and 138 more...
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G...R...E
gross.
sybarite, restiveness, churl, nepotism, jingoism, pusillanimous, gaffe, incisive, enervate, bucolic, concomitant, abeyance and 158 more...
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GRE Words
orotund, mendacious, inimical, foment, contumacious, abrogate, arrogate, syncretism, abate, abdication, aberration, abeyance and 123 more...
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Wrongheads
Insults that make me laugh. Some of these are re-contextualized because they sound like insults to me.
wretched, dasdardly, sniveling, dingbat, rankle, vapid, ninny, nincompoop, dolt, imbecile, fucktard, scoundrel and 173 more...
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Brinstar's Words
cobalt, obfuscate, archon, wii, sniper, arcane, celerity, visage, auspicious, ether, epidemic, lich and 138 more...
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wunderkammer's Words
smarmy, bubkes, elucidate, togs, aeolian, carp, kibosh, bosky, ramshackle, mange, harpy, effervesce and 163 more...
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theastic's Words
cellar, stalemate, wrought, opal, tyrant, squelch, squab, linen, tartan, paisley, scope, siren and 395 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (C)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
cacophony, cad, cajole, calamity, camomile, camphor, candlemas, candy apple, canopy, canticle, caparison, caravan and 304 more...
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vorpal's Words
parabiosis, penumbra, defenestrate, portmanteau, sturm und drang, perspicacious, quixotic, copacetic, obfuscate, inveigle, shadenfreude, cloister and 349 more...
Tweets
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