guttersnipe

noun

gut·​ter·​snipe ˈgə-tər-ˌsnīp 

plural guttersnipes

1

old-fashioned : a person who wanders from place to place with no permanent place of residence

especially : an outcast boy or girl in the streets of a city

2

a

: a person of the lowest economic status

The beloved story takes guttersnipe Eliza, a Cockney flower seller, from the street outside Covent Garden to the bachelor digs of Higgins, a linguist who claims he can change her life by changing her pronunciation and cleaning her up a bit.

—Susan Haubenstock

b

: a person of low moral character

… fervent he was, as well as intemperate, … and a political guttersnipe when it suited his purposes.

—Hodding Carter III

guttersnipish

ˈgə-tər-ˌsnī-pish 

adjective

Did you know?

"Unfurl yourselves under my banner, noble savages, illustrious guttersnipes," wrote Mark Twain sometime around 1869. Twain was among the first writers to use guttersnipe for a young hoodlum or street urchin. In doing so, he was following a trend among writers of the time to associate gutter (a low area at the side of a road) with a low station in life. Other writers in the late 19th century used guttersnipe more literally as a name for certain kinds of snipes, or birds with long thin beaks that live in wet areas. Gutter-bird was another term that was used for both birds and disreputable persons. And even snipe itself has a history as a term of opprobrium; it was used as such during William Shakespeare's day.

Examples of guttersnipe in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Seeing my friend so comfortable in comfort, my old guttersnipe buddy who’d once lived for years in actual squalor, felt odd. —Lauren Groff, The Atlantic, 28 Sep. 2024

Our point-of-entry into the world of competitive bloodsport is Tenax (Iwan Rheon, better than the inconsistent writing), a former guttersnipe who has risen to control a wildly successful gambling concern tied to the chariot races in the Circus Maximus. —Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 July 2024

And looking back sadly, the United States will probably never have another halcyon period like that to squander with minimalist ambitions and guttersnipe politics about nothing. —Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 27 June 2022

The guttersnipes have outfoxed the plutocrats, for once. —Kyle Smith, National Review, 3 Oct. 2019

They are barred from using certain language during debates including git, guttersnipe, swine and stool pigeon. —Max Colchester, WSJ, 3 Jan. 2019

From the massive success of post-grunge rockers Stone Temple Pilots to commercial guttersnipe supergroup Velvet Revolver, singer Scott Weiland's expansive talent cast a long shadow. —Katherine Turman, Esquire, 4 Dec. 2015

There were no sound and light shows, no teenage haute guttersnipes, no thumbing his nose at the rules. —Vanessa Friedman, New York Times, 8 Mar. 2016

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1869, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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