Petling

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    term of affection or endearment; darling.

    "If thou return not, Gammer o'er her pail Will sing in sorrow, 'neath the brinded cow, And Gaffer sigh over his nut-brown ale; […] While evermore the petlings, with sad brow, Will look for thee upon the holly bough […]"

Example

More examples

"If thou return not, Gammer o'er her pail Will sing in sorrow, 'neath the brinded cow, And Gaffer sigh over his nut-brown ale; […] While evermore the petlings, with sad brow, Will look for thee upon the holly bough […]"

Etymology

From pet + -ling.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.