carl

plural carls

1. A rude, rustic man; a churl.

   In Lent noblemen and carls alike had got into the traces and pulled the carts of stone themselves.

   1974, Guy Davenport, Tatlin!

   Synonyms: hick, hob, bogger, bogtrotter, boor, bucolic, bydlo, culchie

2. ScotlandobsoleteA stingy person; a niggard.

   Synonyms: skinflint, tightwad, cheapass, cheapie, cheapskate, cheapo, churl, clutchfist

present singular third person carls · participle present carling · participle past carled · past carled · alternative carle

1. intransitiveobsoleteTo snarl; to talk grumpily or gruffly.

   […] full of ache, sorrow, and grief, children again, dizzards, they carle many times as they sit, and talk to themselves, they are angry, waspish, displeased with everything […]

   1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York: New York Review Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 210

plural Carls · alternative Karl

1. A male given name from the Germanic languages, equivalent to English Charles.

   Of course you know that Carl Duruside, or 'Doctor Carl', as he is always called by almost anybody, is my husband's brother?

   1882, “Doctor Carl”, in Frank Leslie's Pleasant Hours, volume 31, F. Leslie Pub. Co., page 293

   3 more examples

   And Thomas Carlyle is nine. They call him Carl, and he has a regular mania for collecting toads and bugs and frogs and bringing them into the house.

   1919 Lucy Maud Montgomery, Rainbow Valley, 1st World Publishing (2007), page 19

   I'd weave through the throng — scanning for empties to return while flirting, sniffing out kids smoking grass and sharing smokes with Ivor and Carl on the door. With a name like Carl you can imagine a six-foot tall and wide bouncer, but Ivor...

   2004, David W. Scott, The Disillusioned: A Story of Our Times, Fraser Books, →ISBN, page 204

   Indeed, some have seen echoes of the work of the Nazis’ “crown jurist” and political theorist, Carl Schmitt, in the Trump administration’s domestic policies, particularly his doctrine of “the exception”, which can be used to suspend certain constitutional rights.

   2026 January 16, Brendan Simms, “Has a Nazi theorist’s vision of a world divided into ‘great spaces’ found a new advocate in Trump?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 16 Jan 2026

plural Carls

1. informalA student at Carleton College, Minnesota.

   Located in rural Minnesota, Carleton is not surrounded by any cultural diversity unless you count pig farms and cow farms as separately diverse institutions. The nice thing about Carleton is that Carls are pretty much non-judgmental […]

   2005, Adam Zang, Jendrey Julie, Chris Mason, Carleton College