Adjacent Words

Churl definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CHURL, n.
1. A rude, surly, ill-bred man.
2. A rustic; a countryman, or laborer.
3. A miser; a niggard. Isaiah 32.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement [syn: peasant, barbarian, boor, churl, Goth, tyke, tike]
2: a selfish person who is unwilling to give or spend [syn: niggard, skinflint, scrooge, churl]
3: a bad-tempered person [syn: grouch, grump, crank, churl, crosspatch]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English ceorl man, ceorl; akin to Old Norse karl man, husband Date: before 12th century 1. ceorl 2. a medieval peasant 3. rustic, countryman 4. a. a rude ill-bred person b. a stingy morose person

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 an ill-bred person. 2 archaic a peasant; a person of low birth. 3 archaic a surly or mean person. Etymology: OE ceorl f. a WG root, = man

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Churl Churl, n. [AS. ceorl a freeman of the lowest rank, man, husband; akin to D. karel, kerel, G. kerl, Dan. & Sw. karl, Icel. karl, and to the E. proper name Charles (orig., man, male), and perh. to Skr. j[=a]ra lover. Cf. Carl, Charles's Wain.] 1. A rustic; a countryman or laborer. ``A peasant or churl.'' --Spenser. Your rank is all reversed; let men of cloth Bow to the stalwart churls in overalls. --Emerson. 2. A rough, surly, ill-bred man; a boor. A churl's courtesy rarely comes, but either for gain or falsehood. --Sir P. Sidney. 3. A selfish miser; an illiberal person; a niggard. Like to some rich churl hoarding up his pelf. --Drayton.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Churl Churl, a. Churlish; rough; selfish. [Obs.] --Ford.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

in Isa. 32:5 (R.V. marg., "crafty"), means a deceiver. In 1 Sam. 25:3, the word churlish denotes a man that is coarse and ill-natured, or, as the word literally means, "hard." The same Greek word as used by the LXX. here is found in Matt. 25:24, and there is rendered "hard."

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

churl (kilay or kelay): The Hebrew word occurs only in Isa 32:5,7, in the latter verse in a form slightly modified so as to produce a pleasing assonance with the word immediately following. The word probably means "crafty" or "miserly," both ideas being suitable to the context, though "miserly" accords with the setting in Isa somewhat better.

In 1Sa 25:3 the Hebrew qasheh which means "hard," "severe," "rough," is rendered "churlish." In Saxon, churl, as the name for the lowest order of freemen, came to be used of persons boorish in manner. The rough and ill-mannered Nabal is aptly described as churlish.

John Richard Sampey

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Rustic, peasant, countryman, clod-hopper, bumpkin, ploughman, clown. 2. Ill-bred man, surly fellow. 3. Niggard, miser, skinflint, scrimp, curmudgeon, hunks, mean fellow.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

Originally, a labourer or husbandman: figuratively a rude, surly, boorish fellow. To put a churl upon a gentleman; to drink malt liquor immediately after having drunk wine.

Moby Thesaurus

Babbitt, Philistine, Silas Marner, arriviste, bondmaid, bondman, bondslave, bondsman, bondswoman, boor, bounder, bourgeois, cad, captive, chattel, chattel slave, clodhopper, clown, concubine, curmudgeon, debt slave, epicier, galley slave, groundling, guttersnipe, helot, homager, hooligan, ill-bred fellow, liege, liege man, liege subject, looby, lout, low fellow, miser, mucker, muckworm, niggard, nouveau riche, odalisque, parvenu, peasant, penny pincher, peon, pinchfist, pinchgut, ribald, rough, roughneck, rowdy, ruffian, save-all, scrooge, serf, servant, skinflint, slave, subject, theow, thrall, tightwad, upstart, vassal, villein, vulgarian, vulgarist, yokel