churl

[ churl ]

/ tʃɜrl /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR churl ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a rude, boorish, or surly person.

a peasant; rustic.

a niggard; miser: He was a churl in his affections.

English History. a freeman of the lowest rank.

Words nearby churl

churchy, churchyard, churchyard beetle, churidars, churinga, churl, churlish, churn, churn drill, churn molding, churn out

Origin of churl

before 900; Middle English cherl, Old English ceorl man, freeman; cognate with Dutch kerel, German Kerl; akin to carl

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

Examples from the Web for churl

"Let me get something for myself," he says, like the churl in Theocritus.
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 3, August, 1850.|Various
The difference between the knight and the churl still subsists, and both may sometimes be found in all social strata.
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 (of 6)|Havelock Ellis
Oh, yes; but Time is not such a churl as to bid you away before I have had even a look at you.
A Romance of Toronto|Annie Gregg Savigny
If he knew how to break a lance but not how to win a lady he was less a knight than a churl.
Historia Amoris: A History of Love, Ancient and Modern|Edgar Saltus

Yet there was that about Havelok that puzzled him, for his ways were not those of a churl, and he spoke as a freeman should speak.
Havelok The Dane|Charles Whistler

British Dictionary definitions for churl

churl

/ (tʃɜːl) /

noun

a surly ill-bred person

archaic a farm labourer

a variant spelling of ceorl

Word Origin for churl

Old English ceorl; related to Old Norse karl, Middle Low German kerle, Greek gerōn old man

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

churl

noun

Words related to churl

Words nearby churl

Origin of churl

Examples from the Web for churl

British Dictionary definitions for churl

noun

Word Origin for churl