cracker-barrel

American  

[krak-er-bar-uhl] / ˈkræk ərˌbær əl /

adjective

1. of or suggesting the simple rustic informality and directness thought to be characteristic of life in and around a country store.

   homespun, cracker-barrel philosophy.

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cracker-barrel British  

adjective

1. rural; rustic; homespun

   a cracker-barrel philosopher

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Etymology

Origin of cracker-barrel

1875–80, adj. use of cracker barrel, around which rural people supposedly converse in old-style country stores

Example Sentences

No media coverage of a political campaign would be complete without the small-town diner story featuring salt-of-the-earth folks in John Deere hats descanting their cracker-barrel wisdom about the state of the world.

From Salon

The doc is a cracker-barrel philosopher and occasional omniscient narrator in the folksy tradition of the Stage Manager of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.”

From New York Times

This is no cracker-barrel caricature but a shaded portrait of someone who, for all his vulgarity and cruelty, compels admiration.

From New York Times

Not true, say these European shopkeepers: Their places are updating the old American general store cracker-barrel approach, while making hygiene a priority.

From New York Times

It began with Twain and his crowd—the hot-tongued political Twain airbrushed out so that the cracker-barrel storyteller who remains can be enjoyed by the whole family.

From Salon