Meanings
plural fingerlings
- biologyA juvenile fish that has developed scales and working fins.
- A type of small potato grown primarily in North America.
- broadlyAny finger-sized version of something typically larger.
Oh, but those little crab-lingered fingerlings really wanted to get in! Now some were trying to claw up through an old knothole whose bole had aged and didn’t sit true in the plank. […] But here came the dwarf opening her door, and the spiderlets melted away.
2011, Gregory Maguire, “The Patchwork Conscience of Oz”, in Out of Oz (The Wicked Years), New York, N.Y.: William Morrow, →ISBN, page 160
Origin
- Middle Englishfyngyrlynge
- Englishfingerling
From Middle English fyngyrlynge, equivalent to finger + -ling, from having the size of a human finger.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with fingerling
Cite this entry
fingerling. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fingerling
“fingerling.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fingerling. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fingerling,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fingerling.
Source: fingerling on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.