ground·ling / ˈgroundling/ • n. 1. a spectator or reader of inferior taste, such as a member of a theater audience who traditionally stood in the pit beneath the stage: Dante is not for groundlings.2. a person on the ground as opposed to one in a spacecraft or aircraft.3. a fish that lives at the bottom of lakes and streams, esp. a gudgeon or loach.4. a creeping or dwarf plant.

groundling small fish such as gudgeon and loach XVII. cf. MDu. grundelinck (Du. grondeling), MHG. grundelinc (G. gründling) gudgeon; see GROUND, -LING1. The origin of the application to the frequenters of the pit of a theatre (Sh. ‘Hamlet’ III ii 12) is obscure.

groundling a spectator or reader of inferior taste; originally a member of the part of a theatre audience that traditionally stood in the pit beneath the stage, with reference to Hamlet's words to the players in Shakespeare's Hamlet (1601).