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Peon   /pˈiən/   Listen
Peon

noun
1.
A laborer who is obliged to do menial work.  Synonyms: drudge, galley slave, navvy.






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"Peon" Quotes from Famous Books



... the terrible rope-bridges of South America, or the still more conjectural throw of a line of woven roots, would meet the travelers wherever the cleft was so wide as to render timbering an inconvenient trouble. Occasionally, on one of these damp and moss-grown ladders, a peon's foot would slip, and down he would go, the load strapped on his back catching him as he was passing through the aperture: then, using his hands to hold on by, he would compose, on the spur of the moment, a new and original language or telegraphy of the legs, kicking for assistance with ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 11, - No. 22, January, 1873 • Various

... Indian on the trail; but the insolent leer of Sonora's scum, the brutalized peon, the low caste chulo of Chihuahua, froze into the panic-stare of abject terror under the straight glance of her eye. The slightest motion of her tender hand to him augured a sudden death, for she was of Arizona's daughters, invulnerable in the armor of their self-reliant strength, a shield ...
— Tales of Aztlan • George Hartmann

... loudly. John turned round, and taking Maria's hand, assisted her up the bank. Domingos clambered after her. Our peons came close together behind. One man was still on the bridge, when the torrent, striking it with fearful force, lifted it off the rock, and away it went wheeling downwards. The peon kept his footing for an instant, then, as it began to turn over, he sprang off it towards the shore; but unable to disengage himself from his burden, he was borne downwards amid the tossing waters. The Indians ran down the bank to try and render ...
— On the Banks of the Amazon • W.H.G. Kingston

... bustle on board in preparation for sailing. In the afternoon a peon {messenger} came hurrying along the jetty, boarded the vessel, and handed a note to the captain, who read it, tore it up, and dismissed the messenger. He went down to his cabin, and coming up a ...
— In Clive's Command - A Story of the Fight for India • Herbert Strang

... is said, senhor. I have not seen him myself, and should not know him if I saw him, but from descriptions I should think it must be he. I have a poor fellow—a peon—lying here just now, who has been robbed and nearly murdered by him. Come, he is in the next room; you ...
— The Rover of the Andes - A Tale of Adventure on South America • R.M. Ballantyne

... zat's for peon. Zese from ze swell hotel National an Torreon—zay are good. I steal zem myself," pulling out his case and lighting another. He pushed his chair so that he could see young Jones better. "Well, old frand, how you feel ...
— The Bad Man • Charles Hanson Towne

... time I met him he was trying to get employment in the mines about fifteen miles from La Noria Verde. But he was too good a mechanic for the Mexicans, who required in mining the cheapest kind of unskilled peon labor. He could get nothing to do and had no money. He was literally down to his last copper. Naturally, as he told the story of his misfortunes, I felt very sorry for him, especially as he was a most intelligent person and did no ...
— Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie • Andrew Carnegie

... approached. Instances have, however, occurred of individuals having been slain by them, and like the tiger, it is believed, that, having once tasted human blood they acquire an habitual relish for it. A peon on night duty at the courthouse at Anarajapoora, was some years ago carried off by a leopard from a table in the verandah on which he had laid down his head to sleep. At Batticaloa a "cheetah" in two instances in succession was known to carry off men placed on a stage erected in a tree to ...
— Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and • James Emerson Tennent

... at Chalavia that a peon named Tico Viquez came to Blake with the news of a white man lying ill of black-water fever in a native hut. For so much gold, Tico Viquez intimated, he would lead the senor ...
— Never-Fail Blake • Arthur Stringer

... ground, and a barefooted "peon" servant took charge of his horse. It was not at all the kind of dismounting he had performed at the camp in the woods on the road from Vera Cruz. Neither did he now have any machete dangling from his ...
— Ahead of the Army • W. O. Stoddard



Words linked to "Peon" :   jack, navvy, drudge, manual laborer, labourer, laborer



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