herring-gutted

English

Adjective

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

  1. Of a person, thin; emaciated.
    • 1837, Frederick Marryat, The Dog Fiend, Or Snarleyyow, London: George Routledge and Sons, page 7, column 1:
      "Have you not a herring there, you herring-gutted scoundrel?"
    • 1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 42:
      "Instead of being a rollicking bull-necked quarterstaff player with an eye for a wench and a good but untutored voice for roaring a roundelay, he's nothing but a weasel-faced herring-gutted wowser deliberately stuck in a cell to mislead travellers."
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