The guttersnipe's powerful lungs won the audience over, and she became almost instantly famous.
But he has matured and hardly resembles the peevish guttersnipe of the opening pages.
British Dictionary definitions for guttersnipe
guttersnipe
/ˈɡʌtəˌsnaɪp/
noun
1.
a child who spends most of his time in the streets, esp in a slum area
2.
a person regarded as having the behaviour, morals, etc, of one brought up in squalor
Derived Forms
guttersnipish, adjective
Word Origin
C19: originally a name applied to the common snipe (the bird), then to a person who gathered refuse from gutters in city streets
Word Origin and History for guttersnipe
n.
also gutter-snipe, 1857, from gutter (n.) + snipe (n.); originally Wall Street slang for "streetcorner broker," attested later (1869) as "street urchin," also "one who gathers rags and paper from gutters." As a name for the common snipe, it dates from 1874 but is perhaps earlier.
Slang definitions & phrases for guttersnipe
guttersnipe
noun
A vulgar person; a vile wretch
[1869+; in the sense ''a curbside stock broker'' found by 1856]