meanling

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English

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Etymology

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From mean +‎ -ling.

Noun

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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

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