meanling

meanling

English

Etymology

From mean +‎ -ling.

Noun

meanling (plural meanlings)

1. One who is mean or common; a commoner.
   • 1876, Joseph Ellis, Cæsar in Egypt, Costanza, and other poems:

     At them at once! and bring them to their senses. What ? recreants, cowards, meanlings, to refuse A fair return to whom you owe your shoes! Downcast, ashamed, they all before me creep, And do my bidding like a flock of sheep.

   • 1982, Isaac Asimov, Alice Laurance, Speculations:

     I was not burned at the stake like a meanling. And I did not, as prelude to my death, say the cute things that are attributed to me.

Anagrams

• mangelin, nameling