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Pronunciation varies by accent · adjective
(US) Folksy; characteristic of simple small-town people..
Robert Frost was a nice old New England guy with a lot of cracker-barrel wisdom that the government, somehow or other, saw fit to honor because he read a poem, or something, at the Kennedy inaugural.
One can love these moments, can cherish their invocation of the American sublime (though Wright's notion of the sublime seems closer to the lurid paintings of Bierstadt than to Whitman), and yet dislike the cracker-barrel philosophizing in which they're embedded.
The elaboration of this Donne-like metaphysical simile leads her to a cautionary conclusion, which has been praised for nearly a century for its profundity cast in the cracker-barrel tone of the “Down East” porch philosopher: "And he whose soul is flat — the sky/Will cave in on him by and by."
“If there is such a thing as a cracker-barrel philosopher left in our century, Mr. Golden has earned the title,” declared the New York Times.
Use cracker-barrel when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Cracker-barrel means (US) Folksy; characteristic of simple small-town people..
Common synonyms include homespun, down-home, rural, folksy.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
Robert Frost was a nice old New England guy with a lot of cracker-barrel wisdom that the government, somehow or other, saw fit to honor because he read a poem, or something, at the Kennedy inaugural.
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