groundling

Noun

groundling (plural groundlings)

1. Any of various plants or animals living on or near the ground, as a benthic fish or bottom feeder, especially
   • In the pond behind the garden there were plenty of carp and groundlings.1922, Ivan Turgenev, chapter XXVI, in Constance Garnett, transl., A House of Gentlefolk, London: Heinemann, page 155
   • […] the ewe called Tiny
     Crossed over and touched her, the others turned anxious looks
     From sniffing the autumn-pinched leaves of the groundling blackberries.1929, Robinson Jeffers, “The Loving Shepherdess”, in The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, New York: Random House, published 1937, page 219
2. The spined loach (Cobitis taenia), weather loach (Misgurnus fossilis), or other member of the loaches.
   • The BEARDED-LOACH or GROUNDLING. Gobites Barbatula. It is a small fish about five inches long, bearded with six small Threads, three on each side1681, Nehemiah Grew, Musaeum Regalis Societatis. Or a Catalogue and Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society and preserved at Gresham Colledge
   • When you angle for a trout, you are to do it as deep, that is, as near to the bottom as you can, provided your bait do not drag, although a trout will sometimes take it in that posture: if for a grayling, you are then to fish further from the buttom, it being a fish that usually swims nearer to the...1825, The Complete Angler
3. The ringed plover, Charadrius hiaticula.
4. A dragonfly of the genus Brachythemis.
5. A moth of the genus Condica
6. An audience member in the cheap section (usually standing; originally in Elizabethan theater).
   • O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
   • when your Groundling, and gallery-Commoner buyes his sport by the penny, and, like a Hagler, is glad to utter it againe by retailing.1609, Thomas Dekker, chapter VI, in The Guls Horn-Booke, London: J.M. Dent, published 1936, page 47
7. (broadly) A person of uncultivated or uncultured taste.
   • This is what the magnanimous National Liberal Federation have said in effect to the House of Lords, and what, it should seem, they innocently regard as likely to impress the Gladstonian groundling.1893, The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art
   • If you happen to be a genius it will not necessarily be fatal to your inspiration if you succeed in winning the love of a groundling. Female groundlings often make excellent housekeepers; male groundlings good providers. But if your groundling is not of the pure type and should greatly admire your...1896, Elbert Hubbard, This is the Story of The Legacy - Volume 1, page 3
8. One who is confined to the ground, especially
   • It is not the good workman that is wont to quarrel with his tools ; adminicular aids and clinging propensities are fit only for the groundling, the child who is unable to walk upright and must be fain to crawl and to creep on as he best may.1837, Capel Lofft, Self-formation
   • On Tuesday, April 17th, 1906, a business man of San Francisco ascended for the first time in five years to one of the upper stores of the highest sky-scraper in the Newpaper Angle. He was a groundling who had kept his ears as well as his feet to the earth.2006, Wilbur Gleason Zeigler, The Story of the Great Disaster: San Francisco's 1906 Earthquake and Fire, →ISBN
9. (slang) A soldier who fights on the ground or serves as ground crew, as opposed to a seaman, pilot, etc.
   • The poor plodding groundling, helpless and impotent, is swooped upon at will, day and night, completely wiped out at the whim of the low- flying plane, which soars off leaving complete and utter destruction behind it!1937, Field Artillery Association (U.S.), The Field Artillery Journal - Volume 27, page 342
   • He then enlisted in the air force and served as a groundling in North Africa, Sicily, and England.2010, Erin Bried, How to Build a Fire: And Other Handy Things Your Grandfather Knew, →ISBN
10. A member of a race that lives primarily underground, such as a dwarf.
    • Simon noticed a groundling look intently at Walsingham's purse and nudge his mate.2008, John Lambshead, Lucy's Blade, →ISBN, page 184
    • One, a short groundling with dark leathery skin and long white hair, said, "It's not your house, Ventl. You, stranger, did you come here to trade?"2015, Martha Wells, Stories of the Raksura: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below, →ISBN
11. Adam, before eating the apple of knowledge of good and evil (emphasizing his creation from the ground).
    • It is not good for the groundling to be alone I will make for it a help as its counterpart (2.18).1993, Athalya Brenner-Idan, Feminist Companion to Genesis, →ISBN, page 47
    • The two of them were naked, the groundling and his woman, they were not ashamed.2010, Margaret Hebblethwaite, Opening the Scriptures: Faith Throughout the Year, →ISBN, page 16