guttersnipe
Americannoun
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a person belonging to or characteristic of the lowest social group in a city.
-
a street urchin.
noun
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a child who spends most of his time in the streets, esp in a slum area
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a person regarded as having the behaviour, morals, etc, of one brought up in squalor
Other Word Forms
- guttersnipish adjective
Etymology
Origin of guttersnipe
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
By this juncture, the only thing we know for sure is that Ferrara, bless his guttersnipe soul, is still bracingly, adamantly himself.
From New York Times • Nov. 18, 2021
“What are we going to do,” the queen despaired, “about my sister’s guttersnipe life?”
From Washington Post • Mar. 11, 2021
A full throttle paean to New York, this prologue levitates on the velocity of its nameless narrator’s guttersnipe lyricism.
From Slate • Apr. 1, 2020
Parliament's website lists examples of words that might be considered offensive, including "stoolpigeon", "blackguard", "coward", "git", "guttersnipe", "hooligan" and "rat".
From BBC • Sep. 26, 2019
And Signet, guttersnipe, beach comber, and midnight assassin, was lodged in the "calaboose," built stoutly in a corner of the biggest and reddest of the Dutchman's godowns.
From The Best Short Stories of 1921 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story by O'Brien, Edward J. (Edward Joseph Harrington)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
