Dictionary

meanling en · NOUN

Etymology

From mean + -ling.

Meanings

1. One who is mean or common; a commoner.
   • 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. 1982, Isaac Asimov, Alice Laurance, Speculations:
   • 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. 1876, Joseph Ellis, Cæsar in Egypt, Costanza, and other poems:

Forms