English

Noun

gadling ‎(plural gadlings)

1. (obsolete) A companion in arms, fellow, comrade.
   • The Towneley Plays

     Gadlings, I am a full great wight.

2. A roving vagabond; one who roams

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Rom. of R to this entry?)

   • 1947, Thomas Bertram Costain, The Moneyman, digitized edition, Doubleday, published 2006, page 57:

     I'm delighted to see you. You're as brown, my gadling, as though you had returned from another journey to the East with Jean de Village.

3. A man of humble condition; a fellow; a low fellow; lowborn; originally comrade or companion, in a good sense, but later used in reproach

   • 1906, Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008, page 96:

     “Pest on him!” said De Aquila. “I have more to do than to shiver in the Great Hall for every gadling the King sends. Left he no word?”

4. A spike on a gauntlet; a gad.

References

• Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia