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• carl
  carl
• Carl
  Carl

  noun

  a male given name, form of Charles.

carl

¹ American  

[kahrl] / kɑrl /

Or carle

noun

1. Scot.

   1. a strong, robust fellow, especially a strong manual laborer.

   2. a miser; an extremely thrifty person.

2. Archaic. a churl.

3. Obsolete. a bondman.

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Carl ² American  

[kahrl] / kɑrl /

noun

1. a male given name, form of Charles.

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carl British  

/ kɑːl /

noun

1. archaic another word for churl

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Other Word Forms

• carlishness
  noun
• carlish
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of carl

before 1000 (in compounds; see housecarl); Middle English; Old English -carl < Old Norse karl man; cognate with Old High German karl; akin to churl

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

carl Carl

"I'll have a word with yon carl for this."

From The Black Feather From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899 by Mary Hartwell Catherwood

Then cam in the carl cat, Wi’ a fiddle on his back.

From Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age by A. H. (Arthur Henry) Bullen

Here lies Johnie Pigeon: What was his religion Whae'er desires to ken In some other warl' world Maun follow the carl Must, old fellow For here Johnie Pigeon had none!

From Robert Burns How To Know Him by William Allan Neilson

Whae’er desires to ken, To some other warl’ Maun follow the carl, For here Johnny had none!

From Curious Epitaphs by Various

Wha e’er desires to ken, To some other warl’ Maun follow the carl, For here Johnny Pidgeon had nane!

From The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham by Robert Burns

Parton died “peacefully” on Aug. 25 following a brief battle with cancer in her hometown of Nashville, Tenn., where she and her late husband, Carl Dean, had lived for decades.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026

Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Chicago-based Northern Trust, said factors beyond the inflation outlook have pushed up expected yields.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026

Slate music critic Carl Wilson raves that Crisco is a “nostalgic pleasure cruise through pop-country styles of the past.”

From Slate ● Oct. 5, 2026

Asia military specialist Carl Thayer warned against alarmism, noting that the Ban Keun site could only support light aircraft and military trainers for now.

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

I was in the fifth grade when my friend Carl invited me to his home to see his coin collection.

From "Breaking Through" by Francisco Jiménez