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Webster 1913 Edition


Kinglet

King′let

,
Noun.
1.
A little king; a weak or insignificant king.
Carlyle.
2.
(Zool.)
Any one of several species of small singing birds of the genus
Regulus
and family
Sylviidæ
.

Definition 2024


kinglet

kinglet

English

A golden-crowned kinglet.

Noun

kinglet (plural kinglets)

  1. (chiefly pejorative) A petty king; a king ruling over a small or unimportant territory.
    • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, I.42:
      Cæsar termeth all the Lords, which in his time had justice in France, to be Kinglets [tr. reguli], or pettie Kings.
    • 1951, Isaac Asimov, Foundation (1974 Panther Books Ltd publication), part V, chapter 10, pages 160–161:
      “My son hears tales. In the viceroy’s personal entourage, one could scarcely help it. And he tells me of them. Our new viceroy would not refuse the Crown if offered, but he guards his line of retreat. There are stories that, failing Imperial heights, he plans to carve out a new Empire in the Barbarian hinterland. It is said, but I don’t vouch for this, that he has already given one of his daughters as wife to a Kinglet somewhere in the uncharted Periphery.”
  2. Any of several birds of the crest family Regulidae.

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