Shabby, contemptible.
1808. A man who is mean enough to abuse me in a common newspaper.—Mass. Spy, June 15.
1823. Dressed up, as he it, in a little mean chip hat, and coarse domestic clothes from Harmony, living in a little log-house, smoking segars, and drinking bad whiskey, just as I found him, rough as he was.—W. Faux, ‘Memorable Days in America,’ p. 195 (Lond.).
1823. The horses here are nearly all mean, wild, deformed, half grown, dwarfish things, and much in taste and tune with their riders.—Id., p. 219.
1835. He’s a monstrous mean horse.—A. B. Longstreet, ‘Georgia Scenes,’ p. 25. (N.E.D.)
1839. I never felt so mean in my life.—Marryat, ‘Diary in America,’ ii. 224. (N.E.D.)
1842. You’ve had a pretty mean time, I reckon!—Mrs. Kirkland, ‘Forest Life,’ i. 140.
a. 1847. As mean as a rooster in a thunder shower.—Dow, Jun., ‘Patent Sermons,’ i. 7.
a. 1848. [One girl] thought me real mean for uttering such sentiments.—Id., i. 147.
1891. “Oh, mother,” exclaimed Phœbe, almost dropping the pan again, “I think it would be awful mean of me to leave you here alone!”—Rose T. Cooke, ‘Huckleberries,’ p. 14 (Boston).
