Word.ws English Dictionary

bretheling

bretheling noun: wretch; worthless person.

Noun

bretheling (plural brethelings)

  1. (archaic) Wretch; worthless person.
    • The palmer rod forth ase a king, And Beues wente alse a bretheling.1838, William Barclay Turnbull, Sir Beves of Hamtoun: A Metrical Romance, page 81
    • Ensured — what — what — do you play the bretheling in our house?1941, W. Marriott, Best One-Act Plays, page 190

Examples of bretheling in a sentence

  • Marck was relieved last month, lordling, and that bretheling Count of St Pol given such a buffet as he will not speedily forget.1975, Georgette Heyer, My Lord John, page 380:
  • Liefer would we your fellowship seek than that of this malapert, cautelous bretheling!2011, Arthur D Bardswell, The Poor Preachers: The Adventures of the First Lollards, page 207:

Forms of bretheling

pluralbrethelings
alternative form (obsolete)bretherlynge
alternative form (obsolete)brothelinge

Origin of bretheling

From Middle English bretheling, equivalent to brethel (“worthless fellow, wretch”) + -ing.

Questions about bretheling

What does bretheling mean?
Bretheling means wretch; worthless person.
How do you use bretheling in a sentence?
Marck was relieved last month, lordling, and that bretheling Count of St Pol given such a buffet as he will not speedily forget.
What part of speech is bretheling?
Bretheling is a noun.
What is the plural of bretheling?
The plural of bretheling is brethelings.

Words near bretheling in the dictionary

  1. Breteuil
  2. Bretford
  3. Bretforton
  4. Brethauer
  5. Brethauers
  6. bretheling
  7. brethelings
  8. bretheren
  9. Bretherton
  10. Brethertons
  11. brethren

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bretheling (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “bretheling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bretheling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.