philistine

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“
The peculiar characteristic of the philistine is a dull, dry kind of gravity, akin to that of animals.

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary

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

  1. A native or an inhabitant of ancient Philistia, a coast region of southern Palestine.
  2. Of or pertaining to the Philistines.

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

  1. a member of an Aegean people who settled ancient Philistia around the 12th century BC
  2. a person who is uninterested in intellectual pursuits
  3. smug and ignorant and indifferent or hostile to artistic and cultural values
  4. of or relating to ancient Philistia or its culture or its people

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Examples (50)

  • They never glean of course that Sayles holds them in patient contempt for their philistine perspective on education. —  The Lesson of Her Death
  • I am a skateboarding philistine, but I really like this video —  digg.com: Stories / Popular
  • I have no answer to this and I feel like a philistine. —  Vulpes Libris
  • But this is such scathing, philistine, vapid, deliberate wickedness it defies the imagination. —  ProLifeBlogs
  • "Liman's movie candy is philistine, banal and lacks surrealist thrill," writes —  GreenCine Daily
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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philistine:   Philistine
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.
 

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