adj, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
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"[S]he, as her attendant, hath / A louely boy ſtollen, from an Indian king: / She neuer had ſo ſweete a changeling."
"When I firſt read Mr. Walker’s Circular Letter to the Arch-deacons, I fancied he intended to give us an Account of thoſe worthy Men, [...] But after about ten Years going with this Work, and that the Time of its Birth was come, I ſoon found it to be a perfect Changeling. Inſtead of what I expected it to be, I ſaw a huge Heap of the moſt Heterogeneous Characters, [...] a great many of them much more deſerving to have their Names blotted out, than their Memory to be preſerved."
"To face the garment of rebellion / With ſome fine colour that may pleaſe the eye / Of fickle changlings and poore diſcontents, / Which gape and rub the elbow at the newes / Of hurly-burly innouation, [...]"
"They alſo obſerue Lunaticks and changelings, and the Coniurer writeth downe their ſayings in a booke, groueling on the ground, as if he whiſperd to the Deuill to tell him the truth, and ſo expoundeth the letter, as it were by inſpiration."
"Away thou changeling motley humouriſt, / Leave me, and in this ſtanding wooden cheſt, / Conſorted with theſe few books, let me lye / In priſon, and here be coffin'd, when I dye."
"In the Deep Space 9 space station, Odo is a Changeling security chief."
In pre-modern European folklore: an infant of a magical creature that was secretly exchanged for a human infant. In British, Irish and Scandinavian mythology the exchanged infants were thought to be those of fairies, sprites or trolls; in other places, they were ascribed to demons, devils, or witches.
Common synonyms include: agent, alternate, alternative, analogy, backup, change.
In the Deep Space 9 space station, Odo is a Changeling security chief.
Pronounced /ˈtʃeɪn(d)ʒlɪŋ/.
The noun is derived from change + -ling (suffix with the sense ‘immature; small’). Sense 6 (“idiot, simpleton”) is from the idea that foolish children had been left by magical creatures (sense 1). The adjective is derived from the noun.