flipperling meaning (literary): definition

flipperling

noun

UK /ˈflɪpəlɪŋ/ · US /ˈflɪpɚlɪŋ/

Etymology From flipper + -ling.

Literary, Rare A young seal.

1893 August, Rudyard Kipling, "Seal Lullaby", in "The White Seal", National Review. Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow; / Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!
There the flipperlings—young seals—are born, and from there, as the ice begins to break up with the spring, they and their parents come floating southwards on huge blocks of ice.1921, The Literary Digest, volume 71, page 20:

1 more example

At last an unwary cod, in flight from the big male, sped close beside the flipperling.1936, Latrobe Carroll, The Canadian Magazine: