groundlings

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
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
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...

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