"witling" meaning in English

See witling in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: witlings [plural]
Etymology: From wit + -ling. Etymology templates: {{ety|en|:af|wit|-ling|text=+|tree=1}} From wit + -ling. Head templates: {{en-noun}} witling (plural witlings)
  1. A person who feigns wit, pretending or aspiring to be witty.
    Sense id: en-witling-en-noun-ECmZSTnw Categories (other): English entries referencing missing etymons, English entries referencing pages with etymology sections missing etymons, English entries with etymology texts, English entries with etymology trees, English entries with etymon, English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -ling, Pages using etymon with no ID, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Pages with etymology trees, Pages with etymon, People Disambiguation of English entries referencing missing etymons: 47 53 Disambiguation of English entries referencing pages with etymology sections missing etymons: 47 53 Disambiguation of English entries with etymology texts: 47 53 Disambiguation of English entries with etymology trees: 47 53 Disambiguation of English entries with etymon: 46 54 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 45 55 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -ling: 52 48 Disambiguation of Pages using etymon with no ID: 47 53 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 45 55 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 46 54 Disambiguation of Pages with etymology trees: 47 53 Disambiguation of Pages with etymon: 47 53 Disambiguation of People: 100 0
  2. (derogatory) A person with very little wit. Tags: derogatory
    Sense id: en-witling-en-noun-F2g4rN2r Categories (other): English entries referencing missing etymons, English entries referencing pages with etymology sections missing etymons, English entries with etymology texts, English entries with etymology trees, English entries with etymon, English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -ling, Pages using etymon with no ID, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Pages with etymology trees, Pages with etymon Disambiguation of English entries referencing missing etymons: 47 53 Disambiguation of English entries referencing pages with etymology sections missing etymons: 47 53 Disambiguation of English entries with etymology texts: 47 53 Disambiguation of English entries with etymology trees: 47 53 Disambiguation of English entries with etymon: 46 54 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 45 55 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -ling: 52 48 Disambiguation of Pages using etymon with no ID: 47 53 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 45 55 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 46 54 Disambiguation of Pages with etymology trees: 47 53 Disambiguation of Pages with etymon: 47 53

Inflected forms

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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": ":af",
        "3": "wit",
        "4": "-ling",
        "text": "+",
        "tree": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "From wit + -ling.",
      "name": "ety"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From wit + -ling.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "witlings",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "witling (plural witlings)",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
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        {
          "_dis": "47 53",
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          "_dis": "47 53",
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        {
          "_dis": "100 0",
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          "orig": "en:People",
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          "ref": "1735 January 13 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1734), [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London: […] J[ohn] Wright for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 12, lines 218–221:",
          "text": "I ne'r vvith VVits and VVitlings paſt my days, / To ſpread about the Itch of Verſe and Praiſe, / Nor like a Puppy daggled thro' the Tovvn, / To fetch and carry Sing-ſong up and dovvn; […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who feigns wit, pretending or aspiring to be witty."
      ],
      "id": "en-witling-en-noun-ECmZSTnw",
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          "witty"
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          "parents": [],
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        },
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages using etymon with no ID",
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        {
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
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          ],
          "ref": "1942, Maurine Whipple, The Giant Joshua:",
          "text": "\"But the witlings of the bunch were those two swaggering there in the popular conception of western dress....\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
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          "ref": "1955, Rex Stout, Immune to Murder:",
          "text": "\"...only a witling would call a man with my conceit a liar.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 May 5, Lee Goldberg & al., \"Murder Is Corny\", Nero Wolfe",
          "text": "I have intruded because this situation is intolerable. You are either a poisonous cockatrice or a witling, and you have brought Mr. Goodwin to a desperate pass."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person with very little wit."
      ],
      "id": "en-witling-en-noun-F2g4rN2r",
      "links": [
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          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(derogatory) A person with very little wit."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "witling"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries referencing missing etymons",
    "English entries referencing pages with etymology sections missing etymons",
    "English entries with etymology texts",
    "English entries with etymology trees",
    "English entries with etymon",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms suffixed with -ling",
    "Pages using etymon with no ID",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
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      },
      "expansion": "From wit + -ling.",
      "name": "ety"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From wit + -ling.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "witlings",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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    }
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    {
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  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              23,
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            ]
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          "ref": "1735 January 13 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1734), [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London: […] J[ohn] Wright for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 12, lines 218–221:",
          "text": "I ne'r vvith VVits and VVitlings paſt my days, / To ſpread about the Itch of Verſe and Praiſe, / Nor like a Puppy daggled thro' the Tovvn, / To fetch and carry Sing-ſong up and dovvn; […]",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who feigns wit, pretending or aspiring to be witty."
      ],
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          "wit",
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          "witty",
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        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
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            [
              9,
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          "ref": "1942, Maurine Whipple, The Giant Joshua:",
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        {
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              11,
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          ],
          "ref": "1955, Rex Stout, Immune to Murder:",
          "text": "\"...only a witling would call a man with my conceit a liar.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 May 5, Lee Goldberg & al., \"Murder Is Corny\", Nero Wolfe",
          "text": "I have intruded because this situation is intolerable. You are either a poisonous cockatrice or a witling, and you have brought Mr. Goodwin to a desperate pass."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person with very little wit."
      ],
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          "derogatory"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(derogatory) A person with very little wit."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "witling"
}

Download raw JSONL data for witling meaning in English (2.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-07-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-07-06 using wiktextract (d9fa233 and 9e92f4b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.