meanling
English
Etymology
Noun
meanling (plural meanlings)
- 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.
- 1876, Joseph Ellis, Cæsar in Egypt, Costanza, and other poems: