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eggling

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology 1

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Presumably from *eggle (to sell eggs) +‎ -ing. Compare English eggler (seller of eggs).

Noun

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eggling (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) The sale of eggs; the trade of an eggler.
    • 1938, Ireland. Oireachtas. Dáil, Parliamentary debates; official report, volume 73, page 734:
      No eggler will allow eggs to be contaminated, because he wants to sell at the best price he can get [] If the House says it is, then in my opinion the majority of those people must get out of eggling []
    • 1945, Flora Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford:
      The death of Dobbin of old age had put an end to his master's eggling, for he had no capital with which to buy another horse.

Etymology 2

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From egg +‎ -ling.

Noun

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eggling (plural egglings)

  1. A small, miniature, undersized, or underdeveloped egg.
    • "Ode X" in 1834, Charles L. S. Jones, American Lyrics
      One Lovling scarcely's fledg'd. One, yet,
      An eggling still remains;
      A third, from forth the broken shell,
      In chirping notes, complains.
    • 2007, Robert J. Sawyer, Foreigner:
      But now the little Other eggling was making loud peeping sounds. It was hungry.

Anagrams

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