FOLK • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Folk

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noun

Folks, Folk n.

(Eng. Hist.) In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. (Obs.) "The organization of each folk, as such, sprang mainly from war."

People in general, or a separate class of people; generally used in the plural form, and often with a qualifying adjective; as, the old folks; poor folks. (Colloq.) "In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales."

The persons of one's own family; as, our folks are all well. (Colloq. New Eng.)

Folk song, one of a class of songs long popular with the common people.

Folk speech, the speech of the common people, as distinguished from that of the educated class.

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Etymology of 'Folk'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Folk" Quotes from Famous Books

... knew his master disapproved of fairy stories; and his tales, although he would declare they were true ones and was always careful to point them with an excellent moral, dealt largely with the old Scottish fairy folk, and with the many superstitions handed down from generation to generation ...

— Hunter's Marjory - A Story for Girls • Margaret Bruce Clarke

... believe it, but he wanted to fix the conversation at once. "I'll tell you what this fire is," continued the young man; "it is a light which comes out of the soil, more especially in the marshy places. It is called 'Will-o'-the-Wisp' by some of the country folk in England, 'Jack-o'-Lantern' by others. The true name of this ignited gas is ...

— The Silver Lining - A Guernsey Story • John Roussel

... poetic and picturesque. Such a nature, one would think, must be the final blossoming of powerful hereditary tendencies, converging silently through numerous generations to its predestined climax. All we know is that Hamsun's forebears were sturdy Norwegian peasant folk, said only to be differentiated from their neighbours by certain artistic preoccupations that turned one or two of them into skilled craftsmen. More certain it is that what may or may not have been innate was favoured and fostered and exaggerated by physical environment and ...

— Hunger • Knut Hamsun

... him to charge two guineas for each; there are sixteen guineas, Sir, for the lawyer—but I, Sir—alas my family will starve before I shall be released. Sir, there are a set of men called discounting attorneys, who live upon the profits of entrapping and arresting us poor folk." ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 19, No. - 537, March 10, 1832 • Various

... monthlies were dropped; and there were no more banners reading "Votes for Women" tacked over the doorways. Besides this, the merchant had a man to talk to, after dinner, he with his cigar and Thomas with his pipe, this privilege being insisted upon by the women folk, who had tact to leave the two ...

— The Voice in the Fog • Harold MacGrath

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