Word.ws English Dictionary

gadlings

gadlings is the plural of gadling.

Meaning of gadling

Noun

gadling (plural gadlings)

  1. (obsolete) A companion in arms; fellow; comrade.
    • Gedlyngis, I am a fulle grete wat, […]15th c., “Mactacio Abel [The Killing of Abel]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series...
  2. A roving vagabond; one who roams.
    • I'm delighted to see you. You're as brown, my gadling, as though you had returned from another journey to the East with Jean de Village.1947, Thomas Bertram Costain, The Moneyman, digitized edition, Doubleday, published 2006, page 57
  3. A man of humble condition; a fellow; a low fellow; lowborn. Originally comrade or companion in a good sense, but later used in reproach.
    • “Pest on him!” said De Aquila. “I have more to do than to shiver in the Great Hall for every gadling the King sends. Left he no word?”1906, Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008, page 96
  4. A spike on a gauntlet; a gad.

Questions about gadlings

What is gadlings the plural of?
Gadlings is the plural of gadling.

Words near gadlings in the dictionary

  1. gadjet
  2. gadjets
  3. gadjo
  4. gadjos
  5. gadling
  6. gadlings
  7. Gadlys
  8. gadman
  9. gadmen
  10. GADN
  11. gado-gado

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gadlings (page history and authors); gadling (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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