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Webster 1913 Edition


Bantling

Bant′ling

,
Noun.
[Prob. for
bandling
, from
band
, and meaning a child wrapped in swaddling bands; or cf. G.
bäntling
a bastard, fr.
bank
bench. Cf.
Bastard
,
Noun.
]
A young or small child; an infant.
[Slightly contemptuous or depreciatory.]
In what out of the way corners genius produces her
bantlings
.
W. Irving.

Webster 1828 Edition


Bantling

BANT'LING

,
Noun.
A young child; an infant.

Definition 2024


bantling

bantling

English

Noun

bantling (plural bantlings)

  1. (Britain dialectal) An infant or young child.
    • 1809, Washington Irving (as Dietrich Knickerbocker), A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty
      And I even question whether any tender virgin, who was accidentally and unaccountably enriched with a bantling, would save her character at parlour fire-sides and evening tea-parties, by ascribing the phenomenon to a swan, a shower of gold, or a river god.
    • 1841, James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer
      "You!--half-grown, venison-hunting bantling!..."

Synonyms