noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A lowly person; a peasant or serf; a labourer who is obliged to do menial work.
2. 2
   a laborer who is obliged to do menial work wordnet
3. 3
   A person of low rank or importance. figuratively

   "He is well dressed in cheap clothing. Like an office peon whose wife works in a laundry."

4. 4
   A messenger, foot soldier, or native policeman. India, historical

Synonyms

All synonyms

drudgeapple polisherapple-polisherass-lickerbackscratcherbackslapper

Antonyms

All antonyms

captainchiefimportant personmugwump

Example

More examples

"The boss treats her like a peon."

Etymology

From a combination of Middle French pion, peon and Spanish peón, both from Late Latin pedōnem (“pedestrian”). Doublet of pawn.

Related phrases

foot soldierlowly workertrivial workerunited states

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.