pindling

On the religious side all that they have had is the occasional itinerant preacher, thundering at them of the wrath of God; and on the cultural what Aunt Dalmanutha calls the "pindling" district school.

Sight to the Blind Lucy Furman

Whenever, therefore, any one of us put in an appearance at the breakfast table, looking a little rusty and "pindling," without appetite, Gram would survey the unfortunate critically, with commiseration on her placid countenance, and exclaim, "The Worms are at work again!

When Life Was Young At the Old Farm in Maine 1887

A pindling scrawny little thing, about ten years old.

Gigolo Edna Ferber 1926

He was a wide-mouthed, sallow and pindling little boy, whose pipe-stemmed legs looked all the thinner for being contrasted with his feet, which were long and narrow.

Fanny Herself Edna Ferber 1926

Then there was the writing desk; a substantial structure that bore no relation to the pindling rose-and-cream affairs that graced the guest rooms.

Cheerful—By Request Edna Ferber 1926

He was a wide-mouthed, sallow and pindling little boy, whose pipe-stemmed legs looked all the thinner for being contrasted with his feet, which were long and narrow.

Fanny Herself 1917

Seaton thought maybe somewhere in that pindling carcass of yours there was the making of a he man and that you'd like the experience.

The Enchanted Canyon Honor�� Morrow 1910

Here was no pindling fowl that had taken the veil and lived the cloistered life; here was no wiredrawn and trained-down cross-country turkey, but a lusty giant of a bird that would have been a cassowary, probably, or an emu, if he had lived, his bosom a white mountain of lusciousness, his interior a Golconda and not a Golgotha.

Cobb's Bill-of-Fare Peter Newell 1910

Always after Ellen's mother had said to her father that she thought Ellen looked pindling he was late about coming home from the shop, and would turn in at the gate laden with paper parcels.

The Portion of Labor Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman 1891

Here was no pindling fowl that had taken the veil and lived a cloistered life; here was no wiredrawn and trained-down cross-country turkey, but a lusty giant of a bird that would have been a cassowary, probably, or an emu, if he had lived, his bosom a white mountain of lusciousness, his interior a Golconda and not a Golgotha.

The Old Foodie 2009