Word.ws English Dictionary

hireling

/ˈhaɪ.ə.lɪŋ/US/ˈhaɪɹˌlɪŋ/

hireling noun: an employee who is hired, often to perform unpleasant tasks with little independence.

Noun

hireling (plural hirelings)

  1. (derogatory, usually) An employee who is hired, often to perform unpleasant tasks with little independence.
    • Is there not an appointed time to man vpon earth? are not his dayes alſo like the dayes of an hireling?1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 7:1, column 2
    • When my poor James was in the small-pox, did I allow any hireling to nurse him?1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Miss Crawley at Nurse”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 167
  2. (derogatory, usually) Someone who does a job purely for money, rather than out of interest in the work itself.
    • […]it may bee truely affirmed, that no kinde of men loue buſineſſe for it ſelfe, but thoſe that are learned; for other perſons loue it for profite; as an hireling that loues the worke for the wages;1605, Francis Bacon, “The First Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for...
    • These vain bickerings / Are spawn'd in courts by base intrigues and baser / Hirelings, who live by lies on good men's lives.1821, Lord Byron, “Sardanapalus”, in Sardanapalus, a Tragedy; The Two Foscari, a Tragedy; Cain, a Mystery, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 56
  3. A horse for hire.
    • In the afternoon they went to a neighbouring livery stables to look for hirellings.1934, Evelyn Waugh, A Handful of Dust, Chapter 3, Section 5
  4. (obsolete) A prostitute.

hireling meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Kannada

hireling in Tamil

கூலியாள்

hireling in Urdu

hireling, journeyman, labourer, underling
اجیر ajīr

hireling in Bengali

ভাড়াটে লোক

hireling in Kannada

ಕೂಲಿಯಾಳು, ಕೂಲಿ ಪಡೆಯಿಲ
More languagesFewer languages
hireling in Sanskrit
भृत bhṛtá

Synonyms of hireling

Forms of hireling

pluralhirelings

Origin of hireling

From Middle English hirlyng, from Old English hȳrling (“hireling, employee”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūʀijuling. Cognate with West Frisian hierling, Dutch huurling (“hireling, mercenary”), German Low German Hüürling, German Heuerling. By surface analysis, hire + -ling.

Questions about hireling

What does hireling mean?
Hireling means an employee who is hired, often to perform unpleasant tasks with little independence.
What is hireling in Tamil?
Hireling in Tamil is கூலியாள். See Hireling meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is hireling?
Hireling is a noun.
How do you pronounce hireling?
Hireling is pronounced /ˈhaɪ.ə.lɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of hireling?
The plural of hireling is hirelings.

Words near hireling in the dictionary

  1. hired muscles
  2. hired out
  3. hiree
  4. hirees
  5. hireless
  6. hireling
  7. hirelings
  8. hireman
  9. hiremen
  10. Hiren
  11. Hirens

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hireling (page history and authors); hireling (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اجیر (Urdu) (page history and authors); Hireling (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hireling (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); भृत (Sanskrit) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hireling.wav.

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