cracker-barrel

[ krak-er-bar-uhl ]

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.

cracker-barrel

adjective

1. rural; rustic; homespun

   a cracker-barrel philosopher

Word History and Origins

Origin of cracker-barrel¹

1875–80, Americanism; 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