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/pˈiən/ Listen

noun

Peon n. See Poon.

Peon n.

A foot soldier; a policeman; also, an office attendant; a messenger. (India)

A day laborer; a servant; especially, in some of the Spanish American countries, debtor held by his creditor in a form of qualified servitude, to work out a debt.

(Chess) See 2d Pawn.

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Etymology of 'Peon'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Peon" Quotes from Famous Books

... over the angles and the great gateway relieve the monotony of its outlines. A larger tower, the belfry of a chapel, appears in the background, the Mexican hacienda is usually provided with its little capilla, for the convenient worship of the peon retainers. The emblems of religion, such as it is, are thick over the land. The glimmer of glass behind the iron rejas relieves to some extent the prison-like aspect, so characteristic of Mexican country-houses. This is further modified ...

— The War Trail - The Hunt of the Wild Horse • Mayne Reid

... the poor peon well nigh distracted with jealousy—felt all the keener from its being his first experience of it, all the angrier from consciousness of his own honest love—while he believes that of the intruder ...

— The Lone Ranche • Captain Mayne Reid

... was at its height when Marden came in sight; the whole world seemed to have joined in a peon of thanksgiving which for the moment drowned the unwonted echoes in Christopher's heart that Peter Masters's ...

— Christopher Hibbault, Roadmaker • Marguerite Bryant

... speak Spanish fluently, haunted the town of Mazatlan (from which the Jamestown had long since departed), and made as good use generally of my temporary employment as was possible. I tried hard to master the patois of the peon as well as the flowery and eloquent language of the aristocracy, for I knew well that should I at any time seek employment as overseer at a rancho either in Mexico or Arizona, a knowledge of the former would be indispensable, ...

— Arizona's Yesterday - Being the Narrative of John H. Cady, Pioneer • John H. Cady

... we lapsing into the real good old Indian style of doing business. Thus Indicus orders his first clerk to execute some commission; the senior, having "work" upon his hands, sends a junior; the junior finds the sun hot, and passes on the word to a "peon"; the peon charges a porter with the errand; and the porter quietly sits or dozes in his place, trusting that fate will bring him out of the scrape, but firmly resolved, though the shattered globe fall, not ...

— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 7 • Various

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