titman

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   dialectal or historical: the smallest or weakest animal in a litter; a runt

   The farmer kept the titman of the litter warm beside the stove.

2. 2
   noun

   dialectal or literary: a very small or insignificant person

   The satirist dismissed the pompous official as an intellectual titman.

A compound of tit, an old word for a small bird, animal, or person, + man. The literal sense named the runt of a litter; writers later used it figuratively for a physically or intellectually slight person.

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