From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishvilleinvil‧lein /ˈvɪlən, ˈvɪleɪn/ noun [countable] BOTAa poor farm worker in the Middle Ages who was given a small piece of land in return for working on the land of a rich lord → feudalism
Examples from the Corpus
villein• On the demesne are 2 ploughs and 44 villeins with 12 borders have 28 ploughs.• What is interesting is that the insect imagery used to characterise the villeins is continued here.• Spenser makes it clear that the villeins are not individually dangerous to the superior knights. 