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The Collaborative International Dictionary

Yeoman \Yeo"man\, n.; pl. Yeomen. [OE. yoman, [yogh]eman, [yogh]oman; of uncertain origin; perhaps the first, syllable is akin to OFries. g[=a] district, region, G. gau, OHG. gewi, gouwi, Goth. gawi. [root]100.]

  1. A common man, or one of the commonly of the first or most respectable class; a freeholder; a man free born.

    Note: A yeoman in England is considered as next in order to the gentry. The word is little used in the United States, unless as a title in law proceedings and instruments, designating occupation, and this only in particular States.

  2. A servant; a retainer. [Obs.]

    A yeman hadde he and servants no mo.

  3. A yeoman of the guard; also, a member of the yeomanry cavalry. [Eng.]

  4. (Naut.) An interior officer under the boatswain, gunner, or carpenters, charged with the stowage, account, and distribution of the stores.

    Yeoman of the guard, one of the bodyguard of the English sovereign, consisting of the hundred yeomen, armed with partisans, and habited in the costume of the sixteenth century. They are members of the royal household.


n. (plural of yeoman English)

Usage examples of "yeomen".

As soon as the spring plowing was over, those bartons would be sending elected yeomen marshals to train with the main force.

Their yeomen marshals contacted Stone Circle supporters in other villages.

He threw himself into more planning, trying to calculate how many yeomen they had by now, and where, and trying to picture the larger country in which his war would now take place.

And the peasants… if they’ll skimp to send grain to Gird’s yeomen, why not to us—if we convince them we’re with them.

He listened late to the yeomen of Holn, spreading the maps the gnomes had provided and running his finger along the lines.

We should have more yeomen overall, but you know how it is—if we seem to be losing, some of those will go home and forget they ever heard of us.

Most of Hardshallows followed its yeomen, for the same reason, and Fireoak, in the same hearthing, feared the same trouble.

Gird had all his yeomen in place well before sundown, when the pursuers might be expected to return.

As soon as their backs were to the road and the guardhouse, Gird’s signal sprung the trap, and up from roadside ditch and out from the enclosure came the yeomen with their long sticks and their new-won expertise in unhorsing cavalry.

He had only a few bowmen worth the name, although his yeomen had been practicing with the bows taken at Overbridge.

He still had almost twice as many yeomen as the reported force, and thirty of the good pikes.

They looked ordinary enough, and if he’d had real pikes for all his yeomen, he’d have been confident.

The enemy bowmen released another flight, the yeomen were looking anxiously up to watch the arrows fall.

The other yeomen backed away from them, and at that moment the enemy pikemen charged across the bridge.

Even as he rallied his yeomen, Gird realized that he had made more than one serious mistake.