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Webster 1828 Edition

Noun.

A kind of worm.

brandling ‎(countable and uncountable, plural brandlings)

The young or parr of the salmon, so named from its markings being, as it were, branded
A small, red worm used for bait in fresh-water fishing
- 1939, George Orwell, Coming Up for Air, part 2, chapter 4
  And you also find another kind of worm called a brandling, which is striped and smells like an earwig, and which is very good bait for perch.