youngling
nounEtymology From Middle English youngling, ȝongelyng, ȝungling, from Old English ġeongling (“a youth, youngling”), from Proto-West Germanic *jungiling, from Proto-Germanic *jungalingaz, *jungilingaz (“young man, youngling”). Doublet of Yngling. By surface analysis, young + -ling.
1
A young person, animal, or plant; chit.
- More dear […] than younglings to their dam.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 52:
- He will not be so willing, I think, to join with you, as with us younglings.1556, Nicholas Ridley, conference with Hugh Latimer:
2 more examples
- No eagle-child have I seen being taught to fly by its parents. That is why younglings will not open their wings until driven by hunger.1927, Dhan Gopal Mukerji, Gay-Neck, the Story of a Pigeon, E.P. Dutton & Co., page 43:
- 2005 May 19, George Lucas, “Star Wars: Episode III ”, “Revenge of the Sith”, Lucasfilm Obi-Wan Kenobi: I have seen a security hologram of him...killing younglings.
- Hypernyms
- animal
- Hyponyms
66 terms
baby, juvenile, infant, orphan, whelp, yearling, calf, fawn, hogget, kid, lamb, poddy, yeanling, colt, filly, foal, cria, cub, kitten, kitty, lion cub, tiger cub, bull-pup, kit, pup, puppy, bearcub, bear-whelp, joey, puggle, piglet, bunny, leveret, frogling, hatchling, polliwog, snakelet, tadpole, chick, cygnet, dovelet, duckling, doveling, eaglet, eyas, fledgling, gosling, nestling, piper, squab, swanling, crablet, cuttlet, ephyrae, fry, leptocephalus, nauplius, nymph, parr, pluteus, smolt, spat, littleneck, zoea, caterpillar, larva