[f. LORD sb. + -LING.]

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  1.  A little or puny lord: often in contemptuous sense. Occas. = LORDING sb. 1.

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c. 1275.  Lay., 12664. Lusteþ louerdlinges.

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c. 1380.  Sir Ferumb., 1518. Lordlynges, wel ȝe wyteð alle, how [etc.].

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c. 1590.  Greene, Fr. Bacon, ix. 85. What say you Royall Lordlings to my Fryer?

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1746.  Smollett, Reproof, 163. While the young lordling struts in native pride.

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1782.  Eliz. Blower, Geo. Bateman, II. 47. I should sink myself to a level with the scoundrel lordling who employs you.

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1820.  Coleridge, Lett., Convers., etc. I. 125. How long will … this hive of nations submit to the guidance of litterateurs and lordlings?

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1824–9.  Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. 1846, II. 229. The said conjurors … possess the faculty of making the precious metals out of … the skulls of young lordlings and gentlefolk.

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1872.  Longf., Wayside Inn, II. Interlude bef. Student’s T. Listen, Lordlings, while I tell.

10

1887.  M. Morris, Claverhouse, x. (1888), 170. One of these independent lordlings, Colin MacDonald of Keppoch.

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  † 2.  A kind of apple. Obs. (cf. LORDING sb. 3.)

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1725.  Bradley, Fam. Dict., II. s.v. October, Apples now in prime … are the … Costard Lordling Parsley Apples.

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