eggling

English

Etymology 1

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

Noun

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

From egg +‎ -ling.

Noun

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

• legging