skite-the-gutter

English

Etymology

Compare skite (“to defecate”).

Noun

skite-the-gutter

1. (Ulster) An unimportant or irresponsible person; a good-for-nothing.
   • 1999 November, Thomas Fleming, Hours of Gladness, New York, NY: Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN, page 142:

     They pulled into the Houlihans’ driveway at three o’clock. Larry, the younger of the two, the one who had turned skite-the-gutter in the hunger strike, opened the door. O’Gorman threw him inside with a shove that sent him flying down the hall on his back.

   • 2004 September 9, Captain Coulston, “Re: Proof that Wahid Azal's new book is selling”, in talk.religion.bahai‎^[1] (Usenet):

     it is strange that only you think i am doomhead. others around here know better. it just proves you're a headbin who's just rifting around here. ask birdy if you don't understand that. if you scunner her as much as you scunner me you'll not get an answer, just proves you're a skite the gutter which everybody but you already knows.

   • 2008, Christopher Marsh, A Year in the Province: Being the Memoir of Jesús Sánchez Ventura, London: Beautiful Books, published 2009, →ISBN, page 105:

     Most of the violence was verbal rather than physical, but their shrill voices operated on the same frequency as one of those novelty rape alarms […]. They called one another all manner of local names in their turbulent exchanges: binlid, dirtbird, blirt, girney gub, scut, skite-the-gutter, galeeried gunterpace, thundergrub, spoon and sponge.

Related terms

• guttersnipe

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “skite-the-gutter n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
• “skite, v.¹, adv., adj., n.¹”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.