Definition of "peon" [pe•on]

• An unskilled laborer or farm worker of Latin America or the southwest United States. (noun)
• Such a worker bound in servitude to a landlord creditor. (noun)
• A menial worker; a drudge. (noun)
• In India and other parts of South and Southeast Asia, a person of menial position, especially a messenger, servant, or foot soldier. (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.

• "In the USA peon is a demeaning term, but not in Mexico."
• "Either the peon is different from the American, or land hunger is one thing to the one and another thing to the other."
• "The peon is an Indian, and a Mexican Indian at that."