bantling

plural bantlings

1. UKarchaicdialectalAn infant or young child.

   "You!--half-grown, venison-hunting bantling!..."

   1841, James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

   2 more examples

   And I even question whether any tender virgin, who was accidentally and unaccountably enriched with a bantling, would save her character at parlour fire-sides and evening tea-parties, by ascribing the phenomenon to a swan, a shower of gold, or a river god.

   1809, Washington Irving (as Dietrich Knickerbocker), A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty

   "As if he'd let a cow-handed bantling like you handle them," Cecily muttered. "Children!" Meredyth protested, her face flushing. "What must Lord Englemere think, to hear you brangle so?"

   1999, The Wedding Gamble, page 104

2. archaicA bastard-child.
3. archaicderogatoryA brat.