ladyling

English

Etymology

From lady +‎ -ling. Compare lordling.

Noun

ladyling (plural ladylings)

1. A young, petite, or unimportant lady.
   • 1803, John Bristed, The adviser:

     I now found what was the stimulus proper to excite and arouse fashionable people, such as lordlings and ladylings, for of both had I specimens, was a row of card-tables, to which, after swallowing a cup of tea, [...]

   • 1833, New monthly magazine, volume 38, page 346:

     All the rest of the place is detestable. But none of these once favourite receptacles have been blest by violent overflows — at least, of visiters — this year. No ; — my lord and my lady, and my lordling and my ladyling, all go abroad: [...]

   • 1904, Mosher's magazine:

     I bid them dance, I bid them sing, For the limpid glance Of my ladyling; For the gift to the Spring of a dewier Spring, For God's good grace of this ladyling!

Anagrams

• dallying