as in hick
an awkward or simple person especially from a small town or the country
a lame comedy about the misadventures of yokels in the big city
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Recent Examples of yokel
Much of the show's cast will be forever remembered as TV's favorite millionaire yokels, but The Beverly Hillbillies certainly didn't mark the end of their careers.
—
John Russell, People.com, 11 May 2025
Florida yokels versus the elite Hollywood movie-star kind of group.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 26 July 2024
Ben’s refusal to stand down for a middle-aged white man seeking to wrest power from him was radical, as was the film’s ending, in which the hero was shot by yokels failing to distinguish him from the zombies previously described as animals.
—Richard Newby, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Oct. 2024
John Elway would sooner crowd surf with the yokels in Oakland’s Black Hole than tank a season.
—Sean Keeler, The Denver Post, 1 Sep. 2024
Their argument could really be rephrased thusly: If stunts got an Oscar, these ignorant yokels will maim and kill themselves breathlessly racing each other for a fancy gold statue.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 30 May 2024
Trujillo reimagines the sentimental yokels of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, as fervent, travel-ready fundamentalists.
—oregonlive, 5 Sep. 2023
And, with perhaps the canniest remark on the design’s yokel-ness, someone else claimed to have seen the new logo wandering around Rockefeller Center asking for the Christmas tree.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 23 Mar. 2023
The team brings up a yokel from the minor leagues, Shane (Michael Oberholtzer), to relieve him, and Shane’s gruesome, heartfelt (and English-language) bigotry finally shakes the team to its roots.
—Helen Shaw, Vulture, 4 Apr. 2022
John Russell, People.com, 11 May 2025
Florida yokels versus the elite Hollywood movie-star kind of group.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 26 July 2024
Ben’s refusal to stand down for a middle-aged white man seeking to wrest power from him was radical, as was the film’s ending, in which the hero was shot by yokels failing to distinguish him from the zombies previously described as animals.
—Richard Newby, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Oct. 2024
John Elway would sooner crowd surf with the yokels in Oakland’s Black Hole than tank a season.
—Sean Keeler, The Denver Post, 1 Sep. 2024
Their argument could really be rephrased thusly: If stunts got an Oscar, these ignorant yokels will maim and kill themselves breathlessly racing each other for a fancy gold statue.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 30 May 2024
Trujillo reimagines the sentimental yokels of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, as fervent, travel-ready fundamentalists.
—oregonlive, 5 Sep. 2023
And, with perhaps the canniest remark on the design’s yokel-ness, someone else claimed to have seen the new logo wandering around Rockefeller Center asking for the Christmas tree.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 23 Mar. 2023
The team brings up a yokel from the minor leagues, Shane (Michael Oberholtzer), to relieve him, and Shane’s gruesome, heartfelt (and English-language) bigotry finally shakes the team to its roots.
—Helen Shaw, Vulture, 4 Apr. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for yokel
Noun
-
Sorrentino may also be exorcising some conflicting feelings about his birthplace, which is portrayed as a vulgar, crude place populated by crooks and hicks and photographed like its paradise.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
7 Feb. 2025
-
In first grade, when a teacher called him a hick, Ciotti threw an inkwell at her.—
D. T. Max,
The New Yorker,
23 Sep. 2024
Noun
-
What began in Manchester with an 1819 massacre of peasants gave birth to the world's first workers' movements, trade unions and an idea of equality that has fueled social justice and labor movements around the world.—
Lauren Frayer,
NPR,
19 Apr. 2025
-
French peasants at work, rendered with maximum sentiment by the likes of Jean-François Millet.—
Blake Gopnik,
Newsweek,
19 Mar. 2025
Noun
-
Baby Billy’s first full-frontal scene is more a testament to Walton Goggins’s incredible hayseed bravado in the rule.—
Scott Tobias,
Vulture,
31 Mar. 2025
-
Mantle was the voluble hayseed from Oklahoma who could hit anything but was corrupted by the big city, and wound up undone by alcohol and knee injuries.—
Adam Gopnik,
The New Yorker,
21 June 2024
Noun
-
Going to the Ron Burgundy–Ricky Bobby idiot well one time too many, Ferrell plays Cam Brady, a lazy, cynical longtime congressman running against a local bumpkin (Galifianakis).—
Tim Grierson,
Vulture,
4 Feb. 2025
-
Carter, perhaps the most decent man to ever occupy the Oval Office, was long written off as a country bumpkin, one who perhaps unsurprisingly left office as a one-term anomaly.—
Philip Elliott,
TIME,
9 Jan. 2025
Noun
-
Sanders is a Catholic priest and former Augustinian provincial in California and lives in the Augustinian community in North Park.—
Gary Sanders,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
14 May 2025
-
The same year, he was appointed as a provincial for the order.—
Caitlin McFall,
FOXNews.com,
21 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
The rubes in the trad lobby have been snookered—though their final betrayal is yet to come.—
Ian Volner,
Artforum,
28 May 2025
-
The latest scheme is to create a 2.5% business-to-business tax, a tax hidden in the costs of businesses so that those rubes also known as voters may not notice it.—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
18 Mar. 2025
Noun
-
Elves, insectoids, reptilians, aliens, gods, and clowns are all common.—
Andy Greenberg,
Wired News,
22 May 2025
-
Fans can also look forward to performances by the iconic Silver Spurs Quadrille, the adorable antics of kids competing in Mutton Bustin’, and plenty of laughs courtesy of the ever-entertaining rodeo clowns.—
Joe Rassel,
The Orlando Sentinel,
21 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Yokel.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/yokel. Accessed 3 Jun. 2025.
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