folk

[ fohk ]
See synonyms for: folkfolks on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. Usually folks. (used with a plural verb) people in general: Folks say there wasn't much rain last summer.

  2. Often folks. (used with a plural verb) people of a specified class or group: country folk; poor folks.

  1. (used with a plural verb) people as the carriers of culture, especially as representing the composite of social mores, customs, forms of behavior, etc., in a society: The folk are the bearers of oral tradition.

  2. folks, Informal.

    • members of one's family; one's relatives: All his folks come from France.

    • one's parents: Will your folks let you go?

  3. Archaic. a people or tribe.

adjective
  1. of or originating among the common people: folk beliefs; a folk hero.

  2. having unknown origins and reflecting the traditional forms of a society: folk culture; folk art.

Idioms about folk

  1. just folks, Informal. (of persons) simple, unaffected, unsophisticated, or open-hearted people: He enjoyed visiting his grandparents because they were just folks.

Origin of folk

1
before 900; Middle English; Old English folc; cognate with Old Saxon, Old Norse folk,Old High German folk (German Volk)

Other words for folk

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use folk in a sentence

  • I've tried to teach lots of folks; an' sum learns quick, an' some don't never learn; it's jest 's 't strikes 'em.

    Ramona | Helen Hunt Jackson
  • I've seen more cloes on folks' backs hyar, thet wan't no more'n fit for carpet-rags, than any place ever I struck.

    Ramona | Helen Hunt Jackson
  • Thet's ther way they air raised; I allow white folks might take a lesson on 'em, in thet; 'n' in heaps uv other things tew.

    Ramona | Helen Hunt Jackson
  • He tolt me thar couldn't nobody git up thar whar they'd gone; no white folks, I mean.

    Ramona | Helen Hunt Jackson
  • They were simple country folks, who had been brought up in the old house at the foot of the hill.

    The World Before Them | Susanna Moodie

British Dictionary definitions for folk

folk

/ (fəʊk) /


nounplural folk or folks
  1. (functioning as plural; often plural in form) people in general, esp those of a particular group or class: country folk

  2. (functioning as plural; usually plural in form) informal members of a family

  1. (functioning as singular) informal short for folk music

  2. a people or tribe

  3. (modifier) relating to, originating from, or traditional to the common people of a country: a folk song

Origin of folk

1
Old English folc; related to Old Saxon, Old Norse, Old High German folk

Derived forms of folk

  • folkish, adjective
  • folkishness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with folk

folk

see just folks.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.