groundling
(ˈgraʊndlɪŋ)
[f. ground n. + -ling. Cf. MDu. grundelinck (Du. grondeling), MHG. grundelinc (G. gründling) gudgeon.]
1. A name given to various small fishes which live at the bottom of the water, esp. a gudgeon or loach.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 265 As the Apuæ which are the groundlings..[come] of the fome of the sea. 1611 Cotgr., Loche de mer, a little fish..; some call it a sea Groundling. Lochette, a Groundling, or small-bearded Loach. 1655 Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 274 Groundlings are also a kind of Gudgeons never lying from the Ground, freckled as it were on each Side with seven or eight Spots. 1769 Pennant Zool. III. 237 The loche is found in several of our small rivers, keeping at the bottom of the gravel, and is on that account, in some places, called the Groundling. 1802–3 tr. Pallas's Trav. (1812) II. 461 The mountain-streams..also afford a small kind of barbel, the groundling. 1840 tr. Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 314 Cobitis tænia, the Groundling..is the smallest of the species inhabiting the smaller running waters, and lurking under stones. |
2. a. A plant that creeps on the ground or is of low growth.
| 1822 T. Bewick Mem. 256 A profusion of wild-flowers..which peep out amongst the creeping groundlings. 1827 in Hone Every-day Bk. II. 893 Towering up from among the low groundlings that..surround it, [grows] the stately fox-glove. |
b. An animal that lives on the ground.
| 1874 Wood Nat. Hist. 6 It is a remarkable fact that the Chimpansees are groundlings, and are not accustomed to habitual residence among the branches of trees. |
c. nonce-use. Said of a person (see quot.).
| 1822 Lamb Elia Ser. i. Decay of Beggars, A man, who used to glide his comely upper half over the pavements of London, wheeling along..upon a machine of wood..The accident which brought him low took place in the riots of 1780, and he has been a groundling so long. |
d. A person on the ground, as opposed to an airman, passenger in an aircraft, etc.
| 1940 Manch. Guardian Weekly 25 Oct. 304/1 Of the R.A.F.'s courage and skill it would be almost presumptuous for any mere groundling to speak. 1966 M. R. D. Foot SOE in France iv. 81 The groundlings assumed, wrongly, that the aircraft had accidentally dropped a couple of small bombs. 1969 Daily Tel. 13 Sept. 10 An occasional crash [of an aeroplane] may be expected, possibly involving the death of 500 passengers and an unpredictable number of groundlings. Ibid. 15 Nov. 22/6 The giant Saturn 5 rocket..sent the lunarnauts soaring up into a blue sky hidden from groundlings by heavy clouds. |
3. A frequenter of the ‘ground’ or pit of a theatre; hence, a spectator (reader, etc.) of average or inferior tastes, an uncritical or unrefined person. (Only in literary use, as a reminiscence of Shakespeare's phrase, and sometimes app. associated with the more general sense of ‘ground’.)
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 12 O it offends mee to the Soule, to see a robustious Pery-wig-pated Fellow, teare a Passion to tatters, to verie ragges, to split the eares of the Groundlings. 1609 Dekker Guls Horne-bk. vi. 28 Your Groundling and Gallery-Commoner buyes his sport by the penny. 1659 Lady Alimony i. iv, The Groundlings within the yard grow infinitely unruly. 1762 Churchill Ghost iv. Poems I. 322 The minds of Groundlings to enflame. 1829 Lytton Devereux ii. i, But how do you like sharing the mirth of the groundlings? 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets vi. 183 The soliloquies of Hamlet..must have been lost upon the groundlings of Elizabeth's days. 1900 H. W. Smyth Grk. Melic Poets p. lvii, The dithyramb was meretricious art and appealed to the taste of the groundlings. |
† 4. One of humble rank; one of base breeding or sentiments. Obs. rare.
| 1622 Fletcher Prophetess i. iii, We tilers may deserve to be senators,..For we were born three stories high; no base ones, None of your groundlings, master. 1630 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentl. (1641) 31 Here you shall see One unmeasurably haughtie, scorning to converse with these Groundlins (for so it pleases him to tearme his inferiours). Ibid. 56 These whose erected minds are removed from the refuse and rubbish of earth (which our base Groundlins so much toyl for). |
5. attrib. or as adj.
| 1825 Lamb Reflect. in Pillory, That domicile for groundling rogues and base earth kissing varlets [the stocks]. 1829 Southey O. Newman ii. Poet. Wks. X. 285 Grunts And strives with stubborn neck and groundling snout. 1885 J. S. Stallybrass tr. Hehn's Wand. Plants & Anim. 94 It must have been a mere groundling sucker. |