reckling

English

Alternative forms

• wreckling

Etymology

From reck +‎ -ling.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛklɪŋ/

Noun

reckling (plural recklings)

1. (archaic) A weak child or animal.
   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Vivien”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 130:

     O ay, what say ye to Sir Valence, him / Whose kinsman left him watcher o'er his wife / And two fair babes, and went to distant lands; / Was one year gone, and on returning found / Not two but three: there lay the reckling, one / But one hour old! What said the happy sire?

2. (archaic) A reckless person.

Anagrams

• clerking

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “reckling”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)