Yule lad
Yule lad noun: one of several trolls, children of the ogress Grýla, who, according to Icelandic folktales, arrive one each day from December 12th through December 25, and leave one each night from December 25 through January 6. The Yule lads are associated with tricks and mischief, but also with carrying off naughty children in a burlap bag and eating them.
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Noun
Yule lad (plural Yule lads)
- One of several trolls, children of the ogress Grýla, who, according to Icelandic folktales, arrive one each day from December 12th through December 25, and leave one each night from December 25 through January 6. The Yule lads are associated with tricks and mischief, but also with carrying off naughty children in a burlap bag and eating them.
Forms of Yule lad
| plural | Yule lads |
|---|
Origin of Yule lad
Calque of Icelandic jólasveinn. Compare also Yule swain.
Questions about Yule lad
- What does Yule lad mean?
- Yule lad means one of several trolls, children of the ogress Grýla, who, according to Icelandic folktales, arrive one each day from December 12th through December 25, and leave one each night from December 25 through January 6. The Yule lads are associated with tricks and mischief, but also with carrying off naughty children in a burlap bag and eating them.
- What part of speech is Yule lad?
- Yule lad is a noun.
- What is the plural of Yule lad?
- The plural of Yule lad is Yule lads.
Words near Yule lad in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Yule lad (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: “Yule lad.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/yule_lad. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.