narrow-gutted

Adjective

narrow-gutted (comparative more narrow-gutted, superlative most narrow-gutted)

1. (boat-building) Narrow in the beam; Not as wide as is conventional for a vessel of comparable length.
   • In this case Rolf Eliasson has opted for length, although an 8'5" beam isn't excessively narrow-gutted on a 25'7” LWL.1976 January, Rolf Eliasson, “Dory Schooner”, in Cruising World, volume 2, number 1, page 71
   • She was a narrow-gutted, finely shaped thing (a narrow beam for her length, and typical of the period). She was once a beautiful vessel and would have enhanced any waterfront of the period – 'Even now' the skipper had mused, looking at her with just a little affection.2011, Nick Ardley, The Jottings of a Thames Estuary Ditch-Crawler
2. Having a thin abdomen, especially when sickly or hungry.
   • A round-barrelled, trussy horse of a hardy constitution will bear a dose of medicine which would be destruction to a slight and narrow-gutted one, and you should therefore be extremely cautious how you administer such quantities as you may occasionally see prescribed as physic in veterinary works...1840, How to Buy a Horse, page 190
   • By changing the food one can increase or diminish the size of the abdomen: thus by feeding food containing much bulk, the shape of the narrow-gutted horse is modified; by feeding concentrated foods, such as oats, the cow-belly can be made to disappear.1911, Merritt Wesley Harper, Manual of Farm Animals, page 29
3. Thin; narrow.
   • It is a narrow-gutted piece of country, any way: there are only about thirty miles dividing the east coast from the west coast at certain points, and the Kaipara Harbour and Wairoa River will always be deadly competitors with any line of railway constructed between Whangarei and Dargaville.1910, New Zealand. Parliament, Parliamentary Debates: House of Representatives, page 62
   • In one of the main streets of the city of Glasgow there reaches to the sky as loftily as the local municipal laws allow, a narrow-gutted building of red stone.1927, James Murray Allison, “Percy Sheppard's Narrow Shave”, in It Never Rains: And Other Stories, page 51
4. Cheap and/or minimal.
   • I thought, however, that Dr. Clarke made it appear, as plain as the nose in your face, that the great scholar who was absent was the enemy of Christendom; that such Popish notions as his ought not to be tolerated; and that, in short, the sooner he gave up his professorship the better, if he had...1812 March, “Cambridge Auxiliary Bible Society, and the speeches which proclaimed its birth”, in The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine, volume 41, number 165, page 316
   • Though this book has scholarly pretensions in the sense that it is solidly grounded in far-flung archival materials, my aim has been to produce a work for the educated general reader, not a narrow-gutted monograph.1993, Morris S. Arnold, Colonial Arkansas, 1686-1804: A Social and Cultural History, page xiv
5. Overly frugal; stingy.
   • They replied trade we should not take notice of the that their narrow-gutted employer would not allow them to make more than eight hours per day, because because he always charged full time for them to his customers, which they could prove.1862 January 1, H. N., “The Builders' Harvest Time”, in The Operative Bricklayers' Society's Trade Circular and General Reporter, volume 1, number 5, page 47
   • 'No,' said he. 'He didn't bother. He just disliked them. There's a difference. Because, as he said, the Tommies are getting just as priggish and half-balled and narrow-gutted. It's the fate of mankind, to go that way.'1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter XV, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC
6. Small-minded; conventional and unadventurous;
   • But nothing is accidental in Final Alice: the jokes are all so musical and composed with such mastery as to silence narrow-querulousness about content.2003, Robin Holloway, On Music: Essays and Diversions 1963-2003, page 380
   • Brian was deeply insulted, not only by the tenor of the attack, but also by the narrow-gutted assumption that hair longer than conventional must be dirty.2011, Laura Jackson, Brian Jones