noun

• (historical) A non-Semitic person from ancient Philistia, a region in the southwest Levant in the Middle East.
  "Then the lords of the Philiſtines gathered them together, for to offer a great ſacrifice vnto Dagon their god, and to reioyce; for they ſaid, Our god hath deliuered Samſon our enemy into our hand."
• (figurative, frequently humorous, usually in the plural) An opponent (of the speaker, writer, etc); an enemy, a foe.
  "In very truth what could poor old Abbot Hugo do? A frail old man; and the Philistines were upon him,—that is to say, the Hebrews."
• (university slang, historical) In German universities: a person not associated with the university; a non-academic or non-student; a townsperson.

adj

• (historical) Originating from ancient Philistia; of or pertaining to the ancient Philistines.

noun

• (derogatory) A person who is ignorant or uneducated; specifically, a person who lacks appreciation of or is antagonistic towards art or culture, and who has pedestrian tastes.
  "[W]hen he [Christoph Friedrich Nicolai] wrote against [Immanuel] Kant's philosophy, without comprehending it; and judged of poetry as he judged of Brunswick mum, by its utility, many people thought him wrong. A man of such spiritual habilitudes is now by the Germans called a Philister, Philistine: Nicolai earned for himself the painful pre-eminence of being Erz-Philister, Arch-Philistine. [...] At present the literary Philistine seldom shows, never parades, himself in Germany; and when he does appear, he is in the last stage of emaciation."

adj

• (derogatory) Ignorant or uneducated; specifically, lacking appreciation for or antagonistic towards art or culture, and having pedestrian tastes.
  "[Robert] Walpole, moreover, left England not only more corrupt than he found it, but crasser and more Philistine."