Brewer's: Shrimp

A child, a puny little fellow, in the same ratio to a man as a shrimp to a lobster. Fry is also used for children. (Anglo-Saxon, Scrine-an, to shrink; Danish, skrumpe; Dutch, krimpen.)

It cannot be this weak and writhled shrimp Would strike such terror to his enemics.

Shakespeare: 1 Henry VI., ii. 3.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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