folk Hear it!

folk Definition

folk (fōk)

noun

  1. a people or nation; ethnic group a peaceful folk
  2. pl. folks or folk people in general; persons folks differ in their tastes; city folk sometimes vacation in the country

Etymology: ME < OE folc, akin to Ger volk < Gmc *fulca-, army, group of warriors < ?

adjective

of, originating among, or having to do with the common people, who transmit the general culture of the group through succeeding generations folk art

folk Idioms

just (plain) folks

Informal simple and unassuming; not snobbish

one's folks

Informal one's family or relatives, esp. one's parents

folk Synonyms

folk

n.

  1. A people

    nation, race, community, tribe, society, body politic, nationality, population, state, group, settlement, culture group, ethnic group, clan, confederation.

  2. The common people

    populace, the masses, proletariat; see people 3.

folk Usage Examples

Converse of subject

  • populate: It is certainly a beautiful place, populated by a friendly folks.

Converse of object

  • remember: Letâs remember folks, ripples & snowballs happen on both bears and bulls eh!
  • entertain: As time went on, he sang with another D.C. group, Physical Wonder, and even entertained folks as a nimble MJ imitator.
  • guess: I guess folk having epics approached from the track to the north.
  • tell: We've actually told the folks at NATO last summer that this is coming.

Adjective modifier

  • ordinary: A man who stood for what he believed to be right, loved by the ordinary folk.
  • sorry: Sorry folks I needed to tell someone who might understand.
  • cunning: Cunning folk were more likely to be those purporting to carry out beneficial practices, love magic, or locating lost items.
  • elderly: Why did housing officers from Knowsley Council/Housing Trust move heroin addicts into decent tower blocks populated by elderly folk and decent tenants?
  • old: The people who rob or con or harm our old folk should be put in the stocks in Kirkby Town Center.
  • everyday: This Culture Online project includes contributions from curators from museums and galleries and compelling stories from everyday folk using pictures, words and video.

Modifies a noun

  • tale: What about using folk tales to talk about globalization?
  • singer: No, no, he's a folk singer.
  • song: God only knows trains needed folk songs late last year!
  • music: William of Orange Like most folk music, all of human life is in these songs.
  • revival: And beyond them and feeding them, the folk song revival, the saving of a fading past by Cecil Sharp and George Butterworth.
  • lore: There is folk lore to say there used to be a Roman temple up at the top end of Beer.

Noun used with modifier

  • fisher: Trawl fishing began in 1882, attracting fisher folk from coastal settlements in Kincardineshire and as far south as Northumberland.
  • customersthe: Pulling back from customersthe folks at the motor accidents quot to insurers.
  • peasant: The peasant folk lived in dark, dank cottages with a fire in the middle of the floor.
folk Quotes

All music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing a song.

—Armstrong, Louis known as Satchmo

When chapman billies leave the street, And drouthy neebors, neebors meet, As market-days are wearing late, An'folk begin to tak the gate.

—Burns, Robert

Folk music is a bunch of fat people.

—Dylan, Bob pseudonym of  Robert Allen Zimmerman

And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open ye (So priketh hem nature in hir corages); Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.

—Chaucer, Geoffrey

   For thof ye had as wise a snout on As Shakespeare or Sir Isaac Newton, Your judgement fouk wou'd hae a doubt on, I'll tak myaith, Till they cou'd see ye wi'a suit on O'gude Braid Claith.

—Fergusson, Robert

In the springtime of America's cultural life, its itinerant folk artiststook totheroad to record the life and times of a people.Perhaps never again will we have an artistic record created in such direct and unassuming terms.

—Rockefeller,Winthrop

Will yer stop yer tickling, Jock! Oh, stop yer tickling, Jock! Dinna mak'me laugh so hearty, or you'll mak'me choke. Oh! I wish you'd stop yer nonsenseöjust look at all the folk. Will yer stop yer ticklingötickle-ickle-ickle-ingö Stop yer tickling, Jock!

—Lauder, Sir Harry (Hugh MacLennan)

It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk, Though my own red roses there may blow; It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk, Though the red roses crest the caps, I know. For the field is full of shades as I near theshadowy coast, And a ghostly batsman plays to the bowling of a ghost, And I look through my tears on a soundless-clapping host As the run-stealers flicker to and fro, To and fro:ö O my Hornby and my Barlow long ago!

—Thompson, Francis

Readers of novels are strange folk, upon whose probable or even possible tastes no wise book-maker would ever venture.

—Lucas, E(dward) V(errell)

   Hobbits are an unobtrusive but veryancient people, more numerous formerly than theyare today; for they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth: a well- ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favourite haunt† Even in ancient days they were, as a rule, shy of 'the Big Folk', as they call us, and now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find.

—Tolkien,J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel)

To put it vulgarly, the whole trouble with a folk song is that once you have played it through there is nothing much you can do except play it over again and play it rather louder.

—Lambert, Constant

Up the airy mountain, Down the rushy glen, We daren't go a-hunting, For fear of little men; Wee folk, good folk, Trooping all together; Green jacket, red cap, And white owl's feather!

—Allingham,William

We are a breed apart from the rest of humanity, we theatre folk.We are the original displaced personalities, concentrated gatherings of neurotics, egomaniacs, emotional misfits and precocious children.

—Mankiewicz, Herman