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kinfolk

[kin-fohk]
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plural noun Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S.
  1. relatives or kindred.
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Also kin·folks, kinsfolk.

Origin of kinfolk

1425–75; late Middle English kinnes-folk; see kin, folk
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

tribe, family, people, house, sibling, relation, folk, member, extraction, affinity, stock, clan, relationship, kindred, blood, cousin, lineage, consanguinity, connection, race

Examples from the Web for kinfolk

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • His kinfolk hoped that some day he would be President of the Town Board.

    Ade's Fables

    George Ade

  • Anyhow he didn't have any kinfolk in this country, so it don't much matter.

    News Writing

    M. Lyle Spencer

  • I love you faithfully, and if you are still my good Rosalie I am ready to marry you here in the presence of my kinfolk.

    The Memoires of Casanova, Complete

    Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

  • I've heard my grandfather say that our kinfolk, who dwell far to the south beyond the big seawater, have the same custom.

  • Tell your kinfolk and families and friends and neighbors to make bands and hang together.

    The Covered Wagon

    Emerson Hough

British Dictionary definitions for kinfolk

kinfolk

pl n
  1. mainly US and Canadian another word for kinsfolk
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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

Word Origin and History for kinfolk

n.

also kin-folk, 1802, principally American English, but the earliest references are British, from kin (n.) + folk (n.). Kinsfolk is recorded from 1844.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper