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Answer for the clue "In Elizabethan theater a playgoer in the cheap standing section ", 10 letters:
groundling

Alternative clues for the word groundling

Word definitions for groundling in dictionaries

Wikipedia Word definitions in Wikipedia
A groundling was a person who frequently visited the Globe Theatre in the early 17th century. They were too poor to pay to be able to sit on one of the three levels of the theatre. By paying one penny, they could stand in "the pit", also called "the yard", ...

Wiktionary Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. 1 Any of various plants or animals living on or near the ground, as a benthic fish or bottom feeder, especially 2 # The (vern: spined loach), (taxlink Cobitis taenia species noshow=1), or other loaches. 3 # The ringed plover, ''Charadrius hiaticula''. ...

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"theater patron in the pit," c.1600, from ground (n.) in an Elizabethan sense of "pit of a theater" + -ling . From the beginning emblematic of bad or unsophisticated taste. Old English grundling was a type of fish.

WordNet Word definitions in WordNet
n. in Elizabethan theater: a playgoer in the cheap standing section

The Collaborative International Dictionary Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Groundling \Ground"ling\, n. [Ground + -ling.] (Zo["o]l.) A fish that keeps at the bottom of the water, as the loach. A spectator in the pit of a theater, which formerly was on the ground, and without floor or benches. No comic buffoon to make the groundlings ...

Usage examples of groundling.

With most of the menservants from Woburton House scattered among the audience, the groundlings had lost interest in badgering her, turning for entertainment to the painted pretties in their midst.

Along with the company, the tireman and his assistants, the prompter, and the stagehands, a couple of dozen friends and wives and lovers milled about where the groundlings would throng in a few hours.

Centaur Project in were useful enough to keep him busy fifteen hours a day in the army of groundlings who, minus the glamor, also served.

Not many groundlings would volunteer for space-piracy, not even with the loot there is in it.

Manhattan groundlings, extras and understudies, walk-ons and bit-part players, these unknown Earthlings.

That she, the strong-minded Amazon, the lion-hearted wielder of the sword of justice, the indomitable scorner of men should thus have been cozened, baffled, bamboozled like any groundling or village dolt was inconceivable.

The sort of scum he would've gotten a kick out of finding asleep in some alley, soaking down with gas, and lighting off if he'd been born a mere groundling.

It was a simple group, in spite of its university setting, and it had responded to his oratory as uncritically as any groundlings.

Having established his pattern of mobility, Mouse might arrange a fatal encounter with Marya somewhere far from the usual groundling stomping ground.

There it was -- tamped earth for the groundlings to tamp down yet further.

I walked back to the hotel through the crowds (here they come again) of Manhattan groundlings, extras and understudies, walk-ons and bit-part players, these unknown Earthlings.