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# peasant

«peasant» in Mova's school dictionary: **A peasant was a poor farmer or farm worker in the past…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a peasant, peasants); adjective (peasant farmers)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A peasant was a poor farmer or farm worker in the past, especially in the Middle Ages, who worked a small piece of land and often had to give part of the crops to a lord. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peasant/#m1)

2) In some countries today, peasant means a farmer on a small farm who grows food mostly for the family. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peasant/#m2)

3) (rude, insult) Calling someone a peasant means they are uneducated or have bad manners; it is unkind. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peasant/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In history lessons peasants appear in the feudal system: king, barons, knights, peasants (also called serfs or villeins); they lived in small houses with animals, paid taxes, and in the Peasants' Revolt they rose up against unfair taxes. In fairy tales, a clever peasant often tricks a king. In playground talk, «peasant» is used as a snobby insult — not kind. Phrases: «the Peasants' Revolt», «peasant farmers», «peasant life».

### examples

- Most people in medieval England were peasants. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peasant/#x1)
- The peasants worked in the lord's fields for three days a week. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peasant/#x2)
- In the Peasants' Revolt, peasants marched on London. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peasant/#x3)
- The peasant's cottage had one room shared with a cow. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peasant/#x4)
- In the fairy tale, a poor peasant married the princess. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peasant/#x5)
- «You peasant!» he said — which was very rude. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peasant/#x6)
- Peasant farmers in many countries still grow their own food. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peasant/#x7)
- "I've no money," said the peasant. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peasant/#x8)

### note

Plural «peasants». Spelling: peas-ant, but not related to peas. Trap: «pheasant» (with ph) is a bird; «pleasant» (with l) means nice. In history, a «serf» was a peasant who was not free to leave the land.

### In the corpora

- [After the plague so many workers had died that survivors could ask for higher pay, and many peasants won more freedom.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/24-the-black-death-and-the-end-of-the-middle-ages/13/)
- [Most Ukrainian peasants in the Russian Empire were serfs until 1861; in Austrian Galicia serfdom ended in 1848.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/45-two-empires-and-shevchenko/13/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «peasant» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peasant/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.