Shaveling
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Someone with all or part of their head shaved, notably a tonsured clergyman; a priest or monk. derogatory, often
"“Bonny times,” he said, “I have lived to see, when a lad of Earl Oslac’s blood is sent out of the land, a beggar and a wolf’s head, for playing a boy’s trick or two, and upsetting a shaveling priest.”"
- 2 A shaver, stripling, young man physically mature enough to shave.
Example
More examples"“Bonny times,” he said, “I have lived to see, when a lad of Earl Oslac’s blood is sent out of the land, a beggar and a wolf’s head, for playing a boy’s trick or two, and upsetting a shaveling priest.”"
Etymology
From shave + -ling.
More for "shaveling"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.