a member of a lower social class; poor farm workers were often called peasants in the past

a peasant is a farm worker who does not own the land he farms, but pays part of the crops he grows to the owner of the land as rent. Peasants cannot ever prosper, because, if they work hard and grow a surplus, the landowner will inevitably raise the amount of the crop to be paid in "rent".

one of a (chiefly European) class of agricultural laborers

a person or family that depends economically on farming of land

a small farmer or farm laborer

a subsistance farmer

a person who works the land, usually for someone else.

least important person in medieval times. He/She was often poor but did a great deal of work just to survive

A peasant, derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, the countryside or region, which itself derives from the Latin pagus, country district, is an agricultural worker with roots in the countryside in which he or she dwells, either working for others or, more specifically, owning or renting and working by his or her own labour a small plot of ground. They are also referred to in England as a "cottager". The term peasant today is a pejorative term for impoverished farmers.