Word.ws English Dictionary

peddler

Syllables: pedd·lerUK/ˈpɛdlə//ˈpɛdlɚ/

peddler noun: an itinerant seller of small goods.

Noun

peddler (plural peddlers)

  1. An itinerant seller of small goods.
  2. A drug dealer.
    • Here's a cure for all your troubles
      Here's an end to all distress
      It's the old dope peddler
      With his powdered happiness1953, Tom Lehrer, “The Old Dope Peddler”, in Songs by Tom Lehrer, Pantheon, published 1981, page 18
  3. (figuratively) A fake-news disseminator; A conspiracy-theory propagator.

peddler meaning in Kannada, Arabic, Malay and Indonesian

peddler in Kannada

ಹಾದಿಹರದ, ತಿರುಗುಹರದ, ಕೂಗಿಮಾರುಗ

peddler in Arabic

itinerant seller of small goods
جَوَّال jawwāl, بَائِع مُتَجَوِّل bāʔiʕ mutajawwil

peddler in Malay

itinerant seller of small goods
penjaja

peddler in Indonesian

itinerant seller of small goods
pedagang asongan

Examples of peddler in a sentence

  • The fat wallets of the men from the city brought joy to the peddlers.
  • Papa also “conscripted” a new “army” of ice cream and ice drop ambulant peddlers.
  • The thug was an acknowledged leg breaker, a shakedown artist, a peddler of violence.

All 15 example sentences with peddler

Synonyms of peddler

All synonyms of peddler

Forms of peddler

pluralpeddlers
alternative UKpedlar
alternative form (dated)pedler

Plural of peddler: peddlers

Origin of peddler

From Middle English pedlere, pedlare, pedeler, alteration of Middle English peddere (“hawker, peddler”), of uncertain origin. Compare Medieval Latin pedārius, from Latin pedāre (“to furnish with feet; prop up”).

Words formed from peddler

Questions about peddler

What does peddler mean?
Peddler means an itinerant seller of small goods.
What is peddler in Kannada?
Peddler in Kannada is ಹಾದಿಹರದ, ತಿರುಗುಹರದ, ಕೂಗಿಮಾರುಗ. See Peddler meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is peddler?
Peddler is a noun.
How do you pronounce peddler?
Peddler is pronounced /ˈpɛdlə/ (UK).
What is the plural of peddler?
The plural of peddler is peddlers.

Words near peddler in the dictionary

  1. peddle
  2. peddle one's ass
  3. peddle out
  4. peddled
  5. peddled one's ass
  6. peddler
  7. peddler's fair
  8. peddleress
  9. peddleresses
  10. peddleries
  11. peddlers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: peddler (page history and authors); peddler (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-peddler.wav.

Cite this entry: “peddler.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/peddler. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.