Darling
adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 Often used as an affectionate term of address: a person who is very dear to one.
"Pass the wine, would you, darling?"
- 2 a beloved person; used as terms of endearment wordnet
- 3 A person who is kind, sweet, etc., and thus lovable; a pet, a sweetheart; also, an animal or thing which is cute and lovable.
"The girl next door picks up all my shopping for me. She is such a darling."
- 4 a special loved one wordnet
- 5 A favourite.
"And in ſo muche the more peril and haſard of the ſaid diſeaſes [“ambicion, auarice, riottous exceſſe, hatred, enuye, and ſuche others”] do the princes ſtand, as they are more then others made wantons ⁊ derelynges of fortune, and haue lybertie withoute checke or controllemente to fulfyll their owne ſenſuall luſtes and appetites."
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- 6 A favourite.; The favourite child in a family.
"Mary, the youngest daughter, was always her mother’s darling."
- 7 A favourite.; A person (often a woman) or thing that is very popular with a certain group of people. broadly
"a media darling"
- 8 A favourite.; A royal favourite, the intimate companion of a monarch or other royal personage, often delegated significant political power. obsolete
"When kyng Henry perceiued, that the cõmons [commons] wer thus ſtomacked and bent, againſt the Quenes [Margaret of Anjou's] dearlynge William [de la Pole,] Duke of Suffolke, he plainly ſawe, that neither gloſyng woulde ſette, nor diſſimulacion coulde appeace, the continuall clamor of the importunate cõmons: Wherefore to begyn a ſhorte pacificacion in to long a broyle."
- 1 To call (someone) "darling" (noun noun sense 1). informal, transitive
"The frisky female, we have noticed, has one most unpleasant trick; it is that of darlinging and duckeying and otherwise spooneying her husband … in public. He is invariably, invariably set down as an ass, without its being in the least his fault."
- 1 Very dear; beloved, cherished, favourite.
"She is my darling wife of twenty-two years."
- 2 Very cute or lovable; adorable, charming, sweet.
"Well, isn’t that a darling little outfit she has on?"
- 1 dearly loved wordnet
- 1 An English and Scottish surname transferred from the nickname, originally a nickname from darling.
"Richard and David Darling, founders of Codemasters, a multimillion-pound computer game company, dropped out of school aged 15 and 16 to write computer games […]"
- 2 A major river of Queensland and New South Wales, Australia, named for Governor Ralph Darling.
- 3 The Australian aboriginal language Baagandji, spoken along this river in New South Wales.
- 4 A small town in the Western Cape province, South Africa.
- 5 A census-designated place in Quitman County, Mississippi, United States.
Example
More examples""Oh, darling," she said, "sit down, relax, and close your eyes.""
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English dereling, derelyng (“beloved person; beloved of God, devout Christian”), from Old English dīerling, dēorling (“favourite, darling; minion”), from Proto-West Germanic *diuriling, from Proto-Germanic *diurijalingaz, from *diurijaz (“beloved, dear; expensive”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“hot, warm; to burn”), or *dweh₂- (“distant, long; to remove, separate”)) + *-ilingaz (suffix forming (diminutive) nouns with the sense of ‘belonging to; coming from’). By surface analysis, dear + -ling (suffix meaning ‘immature; small’). The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun. The verb is also derived from the noun.
Related phrases
More for "darling"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.