Contextualizebeta

petling

noun

Etymology

From pet + -ling.

  1. derived from petta
  2. derived from peata — “pet, tamed animal, spoiled child”
  3. borrowed from pet — “an animal that has been tamed and is kept as a pet; a darling or favourite; a petted or spoiled child”
  4. suffixed as petling — “pet + -ling”

Definitions

  1. term of affection or endearment

    term of affection or endearment; darling.

    • If thou return not, Gammer o'er her pail Will sing in sorrow, 'neath the brinded cow, And Gaffer sigh over his nut-brown ale; […] While evermore the petlings, with sad brow, Will look for thee upon the holly bough […]
    • The cause of his summary dethronement was, that Ma Betty, meaning it in affection, had called him her “heavenly petling." Jofiie objected, on the ground that, whatever she meant, “ heavenly petling” was in Monkeyish a term of insult.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for petling. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA