Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small village.
  • noun In New York state, an unincorporated community that is within a town and is not a part of a village.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Gymnothorax moringa, an eel of the family Murænidæ.
  • noun A fish of the family Serranidæ, Epinephelus striatus, also called Nassau grouper, common in the West Indies and along the Florida coast. It is chestnut-brown or slate-colored, with vermilion lips and throat.
  • noun A small village; a little cluster of houses in the country; especially, in England, a village without a church, which therefore for its ecclesiastical service belongs to the parish represented by another village. Compare parish.
  • noun Synonyms See town.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A small village; a little cluster of houses in the country.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small village or a group of houses.
  • noun UK A village that does not have its own church.
  • noun Any of the fish of the genus Hypoplectrus in the family Serranidae.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a settlement smaller than a town
  • noun the hero of William Shakespeare's tragedy who hoped to avenge the murder of his father
  • noun a community of people smaller than a village

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English hamelet, from Old French, diminutive of hamel, diminutive of ham, village, of Germanic origin; see tkei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French hamelet, diminutive of Old French ham (Modern French hameau) of Germanic origin. Cognates include home, Dutch heem, German Heim, Old English hām. (English usage before the 12th century)

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Examples

  • Based on the Victorian-era writings of Elizabeth Gaskell about a village in 1840s England on the brink of change, this three-part mini-series tells the story of a woman who moves to the title hamlet to live with her two spinster friends.

    A Wild Crossover Between "Two and a Half Men" and "CSI" -- and More TiVoWorthy TV for the Week of May 4 2008

  • I saw Hamlet several imes in theaters, real heaters, not movies one, as well as an old black and white movie version of it and i can tell you that Mel Gbsons incarnation of hamlet is the very best ever made .. which nobody believed he could at first .. being an aussie and all that .. lol surprise!

    Robert De Niro Joining Mel Gibson in Edge of Darkness « FirstShowing.net 2008

  • Under all that snow, a quaint mountain hamlet forms.

    Archive 2007-11-01 2007

  • Under all that snow, a quaint mountain hamlet forms.

    Wearable Anti-Avalanche Homes 2007

  • The picturesque hamlet is actually a community of geniuses assembled by the government to conduct top-secret research.

    Disney Pulls Miley Cyrus From Disney Channel Games 2007

  • The raids came late Saturday night, just before midnight, when police swarmed a home rented by the biathlon team near the mountain hamlet of San Sicario; a similar search was conducted at quarters in nearby Pragelato.

    USATODAY.com - Problems follow Austrian ski coach across the border 2006

  • In a mountain hamlet nestled into the French Alps at Queyras, we drank café-au-lait* from gigantic ceramic bowls, slathered homemade confiture de mûres* over fat slices of buttered bread and talked about how well we slept the night before.

    French Word-A-Day: 2005

  • In a mountain hamlet nestled into the French Alps at Queyras, we drank café-au-lait* from gigantic ceramic bowls, slathered homemade confiture de mûres* over fat slices of buttered bread and talked about how well we slept the night before.

    French Word-A-Day: 2005

  • "Strategic hamlet" is a replication of Britain's villagization program in Kenya.

    The Secret History 2005

  • In a mountain hamlet nestled into the French Alps at Queyras, we drank café-au-lait* from gigantic ceramic bowls, slathered homemade confiture de mûres* over fat slices of buttered bread and talked about how well we slept the night before.

    allumer - French Word-A-Day 2005

Comments

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  • Meat obtained from a piglet.

    July 7, 2008