guttersnipe

English

Etymology

From gutter +‎ snipe.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Noun

guttersnipe (plural guttersnipes)

1. (derogatory) A person of the lowest social or economic class.
   • 1980, Bernard MacLaverty, 'Lamb' (novel), (Chapter 6, at page 51 in the 1981 King Penguin paperback edition):

     "Do not worry, Mrs Kane, we will return you a different boy. The guttersnipe you bring us will not be the boy you get back."

2. (derogatory) A street urchin.
   • 1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act II, page 123:

     Never lose a chance: it doesnt come everyday. I shall make a duchess of this draggletailed guttersnipe.

3. (slang, dated) A small poster, suitable for a kerbstone.
4. (US, slang, dated) A broker who sold securities in the street.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “guttersnipe”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)