Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An often homeless boy who roams about the streets; an urchin.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A neglected and precociously knowing street-boy; an unruly boy running about at his own will. Also called street Arab.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A neglected and untrained city boy; a young street Arab.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A street urchin; a homeless boy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (sometimes offensive) a homeless boy who has been abandoned and roams the streets

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French gamin.

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Examples

  • She called the gamin: he was a shrewd monkey-faced fellow, with an insolent crafty eye.

    The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 Various

  • i think gamin is only gonna be a benefit if u play these games which are made for school or kids, when u start playin games for 18+ like gta, thats when there are negative effects realityintern

    EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Computer games ‘do have benefits’ 2005

  • The gamin is a grace to the nation, and at the same time a disease; a disease which must be cured, how?

    Les Miserables 2008

  • This word gamin was printed for the first time, and reached popular speech through the literary tongue, in 1834.

    Les Miserables 2008

  • To sum up the whole, and in one word, the gamin is a being who amuses himself, because he is unhappy.

    Les Miserables 2008

  • This word gamin was printed for the first time, and reached popular speech through the literary tongue, in 1834.

    Les Miserables, Volume III, Marius 1862

  • To sum up the whole, and in one word, the gamin is a being who amuses himself, because he is unhappy.

    Les Miserables, Volume III, Marius 1862

  • The gamin is a grace to the nation, and at the same time a disease; a disease which must be cured, how?

    Les Miserables, Volume III, Marius 1862

  • To sum up the whole, and in one word, the gamin is a being who amuses himself, because he is unhappy.

    Les Misérables Victor Hugo 1843

  • This word gamin was printed for the first time, and reached popular speech through the literary tongue, in 1834.

    Les Misérables Victor Hugo 1843

Comments

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  • His second man teacher was Mr Athens Olympus - by his changeful face a gamin hieratic type or a late Greek deity of Marseilles...

    - Louis Zukofsky, Little

    June 20, 2008

  • feminine is gamine.

    June 20, 2008

  • To trade the wretched rags of famine

    For the splendid livery of mammon,

    They practice their smiles

    And ingratiating wiles,

    So grow adept in ways of the gamin.

    February 26, 2014