herring-gutted

comparative more herring-gutted · superlative most herring-gutted

1. Of a person, thin; emaciated.

   "Have you not a herring there, you herring-gutted scoundrel?"

   1837, Frederick Marryat, The Dog Fiend, Or Snarleyyow, London: George Routledge and Sons, page 7, column 1

   1 more example

   "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."

   1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 42