Bantling
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An infant or young child. UK, archaic, dialectal
"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."
- 2 A bastard-child. archaic
- 3 A brat. archaic, derogatory
Example
More examples"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."
Etymology
Uncertain. Perhaps from band(s) (“swaddling clothes”) + -ling, or a modification of German Bänkling (“bastard-child”), equivalent to bench + -ling.
More for "bantling"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.