dilling

English

Etymology 1

Verb

dilling

1. present participle and gerund of dill

Etymology 2

Noun

dilling (plural dillings)

1. (obsolete) A darling; a favourite.
   • 1605, George Chapman, Ben Jonson, John Marston, Eastward Hoe:

     To make up the match with my eldest daughter, my wife's dilling, whom she longs to call madam.

   • 1630, Michael Drayton, The Muses' Elizium:

     Whilst the birds billing, / Each one with his dilling.

2. (obsolete) The youngest child.
3. (UK, dialect, obsolete) The runt of a litter.

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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 “dilling”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)