folk
Usually folks. (used with a plural verb) people in general: Folks say there wasn't much rain last summer.
Often folks. (used with a plural verb) people of a specified class or group: country folk; poor folks.
(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.
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?
Archaic. a people or tribe.
of or originating among the common people: folk beliefs; a folk hero.
having unknown origins and reflecting the traditional forms of a society: folk culture; folk art.
Idioms about folk
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
1Other words for folk
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use folk in a sentence
In other words, the free speech exhibited by the folks at Charlie Hebdo was not virtuous—until there was a body count.
Politicians Only Love Journalists When They're Dead | Luke O’Neil | January 8, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTInstead, the Republicans should tie their push for infrastructure to getting folks off the couch and back to work.
Bush, Christie, Romney: Who’ll Be the GOP Class Warrior? | Lloyd Green | December 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWhat tastes great to an American consumer may not be what folks in China or India would choose to eat or drink.
All these folks were full of gripping stories about their time with Pryor, since he created much drama offstage as well as on.
How Richard Pryor Beat Bill Cosby and Transformed America | David Yaffe, Scott Saul | December 10, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTClearly, the least cool people are the most in-demand: the rich folks who power the Art Basel engine.
Sneer and Clothing in Miami: Inside The $3 Billion Woodstock of Contemporary Art | Jay Michaelson | December 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
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 JacksonI'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 JacksonThet'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 JacksonHe tolt me thar couldn't nobody git up thar whar they'd gone; no white folks, I mean.
Ramona | Helen Hunt JacksonThey 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
/ (fəʊk) /
(functioning as plural; often plural in form) people in general, esp those of a particular group or class: country folk
(functioning as plural; usually plural in form) informal members of a family
(functioning as singular) informal short for folk music
a people or tribe
(modifier) relating to, originating from, or traditional to the common people of a country: a folk song
Origin of folk
1Derived 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
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.
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