churl

5 definitions found

churl - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Your rank is all reversed; let men of cloth
              Bow to the stalwart churls in overalls. --Emerson.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A rough, surly, ill-bred man; a boor.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A churl's courtesy rarely comes, but either for gain
              or falsehood.                         --Sir P.
                                                    Sidney.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. A selfish miser; an illiberal person; a niggard.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Like to some rich churl hoarding up his pelf.
                                                    --Drayton.
        [1913 Webster]

  Churl \Churl\, a.
     Churlish; rough; selfish. [Obs.] --Ford.
     [1913 Webster]

churl - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  churl
      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]

churl - Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary :

  Churl
  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."

churl - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  68 Moby Thesaurus words for "churl":
     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