carl
noun
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carl
1 American
[kahrl]
/ kɑrl /
Or
carle
noun
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Scot.
-
a strong, robust fellow, especially a strong manual laborer.
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a miser; an extremely thrifty person.
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Archaic. a churl.
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Obsolete. a bondman.
Carl
2
American
[kahrl]
/ kɑrl /
noun
carl
British
/ kɑːl /
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of carl
before 1000 (in compounds; see housecarl); Middle English; Old English -carl < Old Norse karl man; cognate with Old High German karl; akin to churl
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"Treason! vile treason!" roars an elfin carl; "Here's a base mortal from the outer warl'!"
From Legends of the North; The Guidman O' Inglismill and The Fairy Bride by Buchan, Patrick
He is a daring carl, and, it is said, knows something more than his paternoster.
From The Childhood of King Erik Menved An Historical Romance by Ingemann, Bernhard Severin
Yet my minstrelsy 's but a lanely lay, My wealth my aumous fee; Oh, wad that I were wi' the grim auld carl, For this warld is nae for me.
From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume VI The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century by Rogers, Charles
"Bewty," I 'ears ya carl her?—aye, ya niver spoöke truthfuller wurrëd!
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 93, July 23, 1887. by Various
In thee will Ornulf find a stout carl, or I mistake me.
From The Vikings of Helgeland The Prose Dramas Of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. III. by Ibsen, Henrik
His brothers Carl and Thomas said: "Even though you were our younger brother we always looked up to you."
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
Slate music critic Carl Wilson argues that the singer’s new album is a middle finger to the expectations of being an “It Girl.”
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
And she told us “I’m standin’ here wonderin’ will a matchbox hold my clothes” before Blind Lemon Jefferson, decades before Carl Perkins or the Beatles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
He said proudly that when Laura met Sweden’s King Carl Gustav XVI, she was wearing a homemade dress.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
Carl never let us down when he arrived.
From "Red Kayak" by Priscilla Cummings
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
