peckerwood

[pek-er-wood]

noun

1. Midland and Southern U.S.,  woodpecker.

2. Southern U.S. Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.,  poor white.

adjective

1. Southern U.S.,  small or insignificant.

   He makes a living farming and running a peckerwood sawmill.

Word History and Origins

Origin of peckerwood¹

1825–35, pecker + wood ¹; inversion of woodpecker

Example Sentences

And white supremacist groups like the Rise Above Movement are giving a new voice to the bigotry of the skinheads and peckerwood gangs that long haunted Huntington Beach, Anaheim and working-class parts of the county.

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Plenty times, plenty times I have carried the welts given me by a two-tone peckerwood because I was late in the field row the next morning.

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Just making sure no peckerwoods round here start any illegal violence.’

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“Perry, did this peckerwood just call me boy ?” “I think you’d better leave him alone,” I said.

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He said I was quite brave, and that was my cue to reveal our confrontation with the peckerwood dentist and Momma’s incredible powers.

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