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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