country adj.
all-purpose ref. to a lack of sophistication, naïveté, and similar rustic stereotypes; usu. in combs., e.g. country gook, country hink, country jig, country joker, country peck, country punk, country slicker ; see also combs. below; also as n. as a direct term of address.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | York Spy 4: I was immediately disturb’d by a Pack of Dogs, and a Squadron of lubarly Country Carles. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Kentuckian in N.Y. I 32: One of ’em [...] says to me as they went by, ‘Country,’ says he, ‘there’s something on your horse’s tail.’. | |
| Morn. Post (London) 22 Apr. 4/5: Many a rough north country carle, whose heart leaped at the sound of war. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Elgin Courier 20 Apr. 8/3: Dear Sir [...] Your two correspondents ‘A Countryman’ and ‘A Countryman’s Son’ remind me of [...] I am yours, Country Carle. | |
| Abilene Wkly Reflector (KS) 21 Aug. 4/1: Judge Sturges has written a letter to a little one-horse country jerk-water paper. | |
| Hartford Republican (KY) 14 Oct. 1/5: Then came the country joker’s time to be frozen and it was done in short order. | |
| Regiment 23 Apr. 54: [cartoon caption] ‘[L]ook what a gawk you are in horseback’. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘The Dead’ Dubliners (1956) 184: Once she had spoken of Gretta as being country cute and that was not true of Gretta at all. | |
| Dict. Amer. Sl. | |
| Amer. Thes. Sl. §391.3: rustic, bumpkin, country, country clod, country egg, country hick, – jake, – rube, – yokel. | |
| If He Hollers 49: ‘Los Angeles is the most overrated, lousiest, countriest, phoniest city I’ve ever been in’. | |
| ‘Pejorative Terms for Midwest Farmers’ in AS XXXIII:4 265: [...] 14. country boob 15. country bum [...] 17. country cousin [...] 20. country gawk 21. country gook [...] 23. country hick [...] 25. country jack [...] 28. country jig 29. country jigger 30. country lunk [...] 32. country punk 33. country ‘punkin’. | |
| (con. 1950s) Man Walking On Eggshells 163: St. Louis sure was living up to its name of being a jive-time, country-assed town. | |
| Semi-Tough 256: Right fuckin’ through here, you country cocksucker. | |
| ‘Black Talking on the Streets’ in Bauman & Sherzer Ethnography of Speaking 241: [used adv.] One hears discussions [...] about how bad or country some Blacks talk. | |
| Irish Times 1 July n.p.: Small wonder that Mildred Fox has been described by opponents as ‘country cute’ [BS]. | |
| Escaping the Delta 25: The blues queens dressed like their audience’s wildest fantasies [...] The message was that they were ‘country’ but had made good. |
In compounds
(US) an unsophisticated country person.
| Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 27 Dec. 8/6: The manicure dame is sure there with the slang and the country boob amuses her. | |
| Bisbee Dly Review (AZ) 20 Dec. 8/6: The Copuntry Boob hit on a big idea [...] but the Wise guys disposed of him. | |
| Eve. Public Ledger (Philadelphia, PA) 18 Oct. 35/2: And what part [...] had this poor country boob and his money? | |
| ‘Pejorative Terms for Midwest Farmers’ in AS XXXIII:4 265: [...] 14. country boob. |
(W.I.) an unsophisticated country person.
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |
see bull n.5 (5)
a fool, a dupe.
| in DSUE (1984). |
see separate entry.
a country fool, a rustic simpleton.
| Wooden World 51: He’s as kind to him, as a Kidnapper is to a poor Country Cokes. | |
| Edgefield Advertiser (SC) 29 Aug. 2/5: Oh you ‘Coke’, you ’Country Crackers’. |
(US) an unsophisticated, backward country-dweller; also attrib.
 | in Diary from Dixie 401: Everybody in our walk of life gave Milly a helping hand. She was a perfect specimen of the Sandhill ‘tackey’ race, sometimes called ‘country crackers’ . | |
| Anderson Intelligencer (SC) 12 June 2/8: he has an ordinary sandhill country cracker cow. | |
| Anderson Intelligencer (SC) 2 Apr. 3/5: No man can live happy until that home in heaven is reached, and the ‘country cracker’ has the best chance of reaching there. | |
| Lincoln Co. Leader (Toledo, OR) 28 Oct. 2/1: Accordsing to his schoolmaster, Bubber Ramp was a country cracker. | |
| Watchman & Southron (Sumter, SC) 11 Oct. 8/2: The unsuspecting folk, thinking the general some country cracker, subjected him to all manner of silly questions. | |
| Herald & News (Newberry, SC) 2 Apr. 3/1: John and Henry are always genial and know how to entertain an old country cracker. |
(US) a rural simpleton.
| [ | | (ed.) Jemmy Twitcher’s Jests 72: [I]n truth, she tuck [sic] me for a poor gawkey]. |
| Daily Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 18 Mar. 1/4: A gentleman [...] missed his toothbrush, and [...] was astonished to perceive a country gawk applying it to his tobacco stained ivories. | |
| Vermont Watchman & State Jrnl (Montpelier, VT) 20 Oct. 8/2: the green open-mouthed ‘country gawk’. | |
| Salt Lake Herald (UT) 4 Feb. 8/2: The Penitentiary guard brought in Steen [...] his whole appearance indicating the lank and country gawk. | |
| Philipsburg Mail (MT) 3 Sept. 2/3: ‘Who is that handsome stranger?’ [...] ‘Some country gawk, I s’pose’. | |
| N.Y. Tribune 4 Dec. 36/3: They all laughed loudly at the sight of Jonthan, who looked like the picture of a great country gawk. | |
| Dly Capital Jrnl (Salem, OR) 17 Nov. 5/4: Bobby Greggs, the country gawk, proves himself a comedian of the first rank. | |
| Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 18 Sept. 26/3: he is one of the ‘greenest country gawks’ who ever came to the Capitol. |
a waggoner.
| Hell Upon Earth 5: Country Harry, a Waggoner. | |
| Memoirs (1714) 12: Country Harry, a Waggoner. | |
| Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions . | |
| , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn). |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
(orig. UK Und.) a country person, a rustic.
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: A country hick; an ignorant clown, (cant). |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Garden Island (Lihue, Kauai, HI) 14 Mar. 2/3: The fellows were mostly ‘hicks’ with hayseed still in their hair. I don’t mind an intelligent country hick but these Pennsylvania Dutch had the open-mouthed stare and blank expression. | |
| Yorks. Eve. Post 23 Aug. 4/6: Skelton makes the most of his part as a country hick. |
(UK Und.) a prison other than those in London.
| Autobiog. of a Thief 232: Maybe we’ll meet at one o’ them country hotels. |
see Ike n. (1)
see jack n.1 (6)
see jake n.1
a country person, a rustic.
| Frankfurt Roundabout (KY) 20 Dec. 1/2: A veritable old country ‘jay’. | |
| Courier (Lincoln, NE) 2 Sept. 11/2: You are no country jay; you are a New Yorker, and know everything. | |
| Wahpeton Times (Dakota, ND) 22 Apr. 12/1: To the city came a country jay, / with a pocket full of money, / who fell in with a bunko man, / who showed him things quite funny. | |
| Rope (1923) 28: You country jays oughter wake up and see what’s goin’ on. | |
| Eve. World (NY) 10 Nov. 36/1: I often walk along Broadway / Where city boob meets country jay. | |
| ‘Pejorative Terms for Midwest Farmers’ in AS XXXIII:4 265: [...] country jay. |
(US) a country person, a rustic.
| in DARE. |
an unsophisticated country person.
| Pierce Fenning 62: A country-loper I’ve bought apples off. | |
| Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 241: A sharper who was on the look-out for a suitable victim among the ‘country Johnnies’. |
(US) an unsophisticated country person.
| Ipswich Jrnl 17 May n.p.: A country pumpkin the great offer heard, / [...] / With cheerfulness the Eighteen pence he paid. | |
| Grand River Times (Grand Haven, MI) 17 May 2/4: It would be impossible for any but a ‘country pumpkin’ to tell one from the other. | |
| Herts. Guardian 15 July 3/4: From America [...] This is to certify that I, Charles Waverly (late of the city of New York), but now a ‘country pumpkin’ am in search of a wife. | |
| Alpena Wkly Argus (MI) 25 June 4/2: Art received rather an awkward criticism from a young country pumpkin who recently met a sculptor. | |
| San Antono Light (TX) 24 Nov. 1/3: A country pumpkin [...] last night dislocated his wrist while hammering on the table. | |
| Eve. World (NY) 9 Mar. 5/5: Along comes a country pumpkin [...] who proposes, and by all accounts is accepted. | |
| Iron Co. Register (MO) 9 Jan. 4/2: The average man stares [...] as a country pumpkin on his first visit to the circus. | |
| Nashville Globe (TN) 22 Aug. 7/3: You can discourage the opinion [...] that the farmer is a hayseed, a green country pumpkin. | |
| N.Y. Tribune 20 Sept. 8: It is one of those Will Rogers parts, a lazy, hulking, awkward country pumpkin who seems unable to do anything right. | |
| Dundee Eve. Teleg. 11 Nov. 4/1: Don Bradman was an idol from the legendary day when, as a country pumpkin, he made his debut on Sydney cricket ground. | |
| ‘Pejorative Terms for Midwest Farmers’ in AS XXXIII:4 265: [...] 33. country ‘punkin’. |
a country person, a rustic.
| Squire of Alsatia I i: Puppy! Owl! Loggerhed! O silly country put! | |
| (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk IV 236: His brother bumpkins and other yeoman and country-puts thereabouts [...] were not a little amazed. | |
| A Comical View of London and Westminster in Works (1760) I 149: Shoals of country-puts come to town about five. | |
| Tatler No. 230 n.p.: I believe you that I banter’d you in my Last like a Country Put. | |
| Bold Stroke for a Wife IV i: Now for the Country Put. | |
| New Canting Dict. n.p.: A Country-Put, a silly, shallow-pated Fellow. | |
| Polite Conversation in Works (1766) XI 207: Neverout. Faith, he’s a true country-put. | |
| , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725] . |
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 531: orestes, last, a country put [...] Gap’d as our country puts gape now. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 277: A simple country put / To see his grannum walks on foot. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
(US) an unsophisticated country person.
| Omaha Daily Bee (NE) 20 Mar. 25/3: he is advertising for a local cycle concern and appears in the make-up of a ‘country rube’. | |
| Hutchinson Gaz. (KS) 20 June 8/1: Don’t call him ‘A country Rube’. | |
| East Oregonion (Pendleton, OR) [eve. edn] 3 July 4/1: In the liost of prizes given [...] for the best characters in the ‘plug uglies’ on the Fourth of July are [...] the best ‘country Reuben’. | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 24 July 3/1: The country Rube who came to town used to be a stock joke. | |
| Commoner (Lincoln, NE) 1 May 72: Our eastern cities [...] point a finger of scorn at what they term the ‘country rube’. | |
| Amer. Thes. Sl. §391.3: rustic, bumpkin, country, country clod, country egg, country hick, – jake, – rube, – yokel. |
(US) an unsophisticated country person.
| Country Gentleman (Albany, NY) 1 Jan. 15/2: It gave a signal reproof to the ‘country squash’ who expected to furnish ‘all creation’ with seeds. | |
| Dly Globe (St Paul, MN) 7 Oct. 9/7: I want you to understand I’m no country squash. | |
| N.Y. Tribune 13 Oct. 24/3: ‘Jack’ Williams, the professional ‘Rube’ [...] was out yesterday afternoon clad in his rural attire. [...] He hands out circulars for the concern that employs him. He prefers, however, to appear as a plain country squash. |
work that progresses very slowly.
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |