runt of the litter
The smallest and weakest person in a group, especially a group of siblings.
runt
/ɹʌnt/
noun 5
Collocations
5ADJ.
little, smaller
VERB + RUNT
demotivated, getting
RUNT + NOUN
family, group, litter
PREP.
than, up
ADV.
always
Definitions
noun
1
The smallest animal of a litter.
Sometimes, as we have seen, one member of a litter is a runt, much smaller than the rest. He is unable to fight for food as strongly as the rest, and runts often die. We have considered the conditions under which it would actually pay a mother to let a runt die.
2
The smallest child in the family.
the runt of the family
3
Undersized or stunted plant, animal or person.
4
An uninfluential or unimportant person; a nobody.
5
An Ethernet packet that does not meet the medium's minimum packet size of 64 bytes.
Thesaurus
Idioms & Phrases
Example Bank
601
Sometimes, as we have seen, one member of a litter is a runt, much smaller than the rest. He is unable to fight for food as strongly as the rest, and runts often die. We have considered the conditions
Wiktionary02
the runt of the family
Wiktionary03
Neither young poles nor old runts are durable
Wiktionary04
You little runt!
Tatoeba · #218424705
She was the runt of the litter.
Tatoeba · #974704606
He was the runt of the litter.
Tatoeba · #9747049Usage Notes
i Register
In some senses, runt is marked as slang. Watch for register when choosing this word.
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