Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a person belonging to or characteristic of the lowest social group in a city.
- a street urchin.
noun
- a child who spends most of his time in the streets, esp in a slum area
- a person regarded as having the behaviour, morals, etc, of one brought up in squalor
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.