Definition of "ceorl" [ceorl]

• A freeman of the lowest class in Anglo-Saxon England. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Maybe it's intended to reflect a real or imagined class difference, with the ceorl class cast as hobbits and the eorl class cast as Rohirric warriors."
• "He had said to himself again and again that her father was right; that the poor ceorl, Giles"
• "If he did, he would know that the word churl OE. ceorl m. is historically, and currently, loaded with class distinction."