guttersnipe means A person of the lowest social or economic class.
guttersnipe is pronounced /ˈɡʌtɚˌsnaɪp/.
Why “guttersnipe” is a great word
A scruffy, badly behaved child of the lowest social class who spends their life in the streets. Forged from gutter (a channel at the edge of a street) and snipe (a type of bird, figuratively a contemptible person), it first surfaced in 1857 as Wall Street slang for a lowly streetcorner broker. Unlike “urchin,” which suggests a mischievous poor child, or “vagabond,” which conjures a romantic wanderer, a guttersnipe implies a creature fixed in the city’s grime. It is the child who sleeps in doorways, who knows the taste of rainwater from a rusted drain, who has learned to snatch what falls from carts before the wheels pass—the small, fierce creature of the city's margins, defined not by movement but by stubborn survival in one miserable spot.
Etymology
From gutter + snipe.
noun
- A person of the lowest social or economic class.e.g.“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.”
- A street urchin.e.g.“Never lose a chance: it doesnt come everyday. I shall make a duchess of this draggletailed guttersnipe.”
- A broker who sold securities in the street.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- ragamuffin 82% match — A dirty, shabbily-clothed child; an urchin. vs guttersnipe →
- gamin 82% match — A homeless boy; a male street urchin; also (more generally), a cheeky, street-smart boy. vs guttersnipe →
- hellion 81% match — An unruly, rowdy or mischievous person, especially a child. vs guttersnipe →
- rapscallion 81% match — A rascal, scamp, rogue, or scoundrel. vs guttersnipe →
- knave 81% match — A boy; especially, a boy servant. vs guttersnipe →
- scapegrace 81% match — A wild and reckless person (especially a boy); a scoundrel. vs guttersnipe →
- urchin 81% match — A hedgehog. vs guttersnipe →
- spalpeen 80% match — A poor migratory farm worker in Ireland, often viewed as a rascal or mischievous and cunning person. vs guttersnipe →