RUSTIC

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does rustic mean? 

• RUSTIC (noun)
  The noun RUSTIC has 1 sense:

1. an unsophisticated country person

  Familiarity information: RUSTIC used as a noun is very rare.

• RUSTIC (adjective)
  The adjective RUSTIC has 3 senses:

1. characteristic of rural life

2. awkwardly simple and provincial

3. characteristic of the fields or country

  Familiarity information: RUSTIC used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RUSTIC (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An unsophisticated country person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("rustic" is a kind of...):

common man; common person; commoner (a person who holds no title)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "rustic"):

coon (an eccentric or undignified rustic)

countryman; ruralist (a man who lives in the country and has country ways)

countrywoman (a woman who lives in the country and has country ways)

bushwhacker; hillbilly (a disparaging term for an unsophisticated person)

bucolic; peasant; provincial (a country person)

cracker; redneck (a poor White person in the southern United States)

woodman; woodsman (someone who lives in the woods)

bumpkin; chawbacon; hayseed; hick; rube; yahoo; yokel (a person who is not very intelligent or interested in culture)

Derivation:

rusticate (live in the country and lead a rustic life)

• RUSTIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Characteristic of rural life

Synonyms:

countrified; countryfied; rustic

Context example:

rustic awkwardness

Similar:

rural (living in or characteristic of farming or country life)

Derivation:

rusticity (the quality of being rustic or gauche)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Awkwardly simple and provincial

Synonyms:

bumpkinly; hick; rustic; unsophisticated

Context example:

the nightlife of Montmartre awed the unsophisticated tourists

Similar:

provincial (characteristic of the provinces or their people)

Derivation:

rusticity (the quality of being rustic or gauche)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Characteristic of the fields or country

Synonyms:

agrestic; rustic

Context example:

rustic stone walls

Similar:

rural (living in or characteristic of farming or country life)

Derivation:

rusticity (the quality of being rustic or gauche)

 Context examples 

With his permission my mother prevailed on her rustic guardians to yield their charge to her.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

There was a seat for Mr. Peggotty too, but he preferred to stand, leaning his hand on the small rustic table.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was about five o’clock, and the shadows of the March evening were beginning to fall, when an excited rustic rushed into our room.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Why else should they wander together in the woods, or be so lost in talk by rustic streams?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I would have everything as complete as possible in the country, shrubberies and flower-gardens, and rustic seats innumerable: but it must all be done without my care.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

My friend knocked at the little rustic door, and knocked again without response.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Laurie, when are you going to your grandfather?" she asked presently, as she settled herself on a rustic seat.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I had long felt with pleasure that many of my rustic scholars liked me, and when we parted, that consciousness was confirmed: they manifested their affection plainly and strongly.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

In spite of the light brown dustcoat and leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of Scotland Yard.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Upon this imagination, he put several other questions to me, and still received rational answers: no otherwise defective than by a foreign accent, and an imperfect knowledge in the language, with some rustic phrases which I had learned at the farmer’s house, and did not suit the polite style of a court.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)