yokel
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
- yokelish adjective
Etymology
Origin of yokel
First recorded in 1805–15; origin uncertain
Explanation
Yokel is a disparaging name for someone from a small town or the countryside. To call someone a yokel is to imply that they are unsophisticated, uneducated, and probably dim-witted. Before the age of internet and television, if you grew up in a small town or on a farm, you probably wouldn’t have known about the latest fashions of Paris and Milan or the best restaurants in New York. Even now, if you live in a remote place, you may have a somewhat provincial understanding of the world. If so, when you visit the Big City an unkind “city slicker” may call you a yokel.
Vocabulary lists containing yokel
100 SAT words Beginning with W,X,Y, and Z
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"The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer, The Pardoner's Prologue
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The Odyssey
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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.
"Ted Lasso" was introduced as a the story of a out-of-place Kansas yokel in Britain, with Jason Sudeikis playing Ted as the kind of man aware of the assumptions people will make about him.
From Salon • Aug. 7, 2021
“Hilter” plans to run for a minor office in a local election and gives a speech from a balcony to an audience of three children and one yokel with a straw hat.
From Slate • Oct. 14, 2019
"She was a bully who treated me like some country yokel from Yorkshire. I couldn't abide her then, so I won't pretend I am looking forward to rubbing shoulders with her now."
From BBC • May 29, 2017
In it, Mr. Stanley, as a city slicker lost in the country, questions and gets smart answers from Carter, portraying a wisecracking local yokel:
From Washington Post • Jun. 23, 2016
Dawn Madden did a spazzo yokel voice at the tractor.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
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.
