gadling

G2A1D2L1I1N1G2
/ˈɡæd.lɪŋ/

noun

A companion in arms; fellow; comrade.

OriginMiddle English gadelyng ← Old English geaduling ← Proto-West Germanic *gaduling →
UncommonScrabble 10
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Meanings

noungadling (plural gadlings)

plural gadlings

  1. obsoleteA companion in arms; fellow; comrade.

    Gedlyngis, I am a fulle grete wat, […]

    Gadlings, I am a very great man, […]

    15th c., “Mactacio Abel [The Killing of Abel]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 10, line 14
  2. A roving vagabond; one who roams.

    I'm delighted to see you. You're as brown, my gadling, as though you had returned from another journey to the East with Jean de Village.

    1947, Thomas Bertram Costain, The Moneyman, digitized edition, Doubleday, published 2006, page 57
  3. A man of humble condition; a fellow; a low fellow; lowborn. Originally comrade or companion in a good sense, but later used in reproach.

    “Pest on him!” said De Aquila. “I have more to do than to shiver in the Great Hall for every gadling the King sends. Left he no word?”

    1906, Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008, page 96
  4. A spike on a gauntlet; a gad.

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
bumderelictfloatergadscatterlingswagmantramptruantvagabondvagrantwaifwanderer

Origin

  1. Proto-Germanic*gadulingaz
  2. Proto-West Germanic*gaduling
  3. Old Englishgeaduling
  4. Middle Englishgadelyng“companion in arms; man, fellow; a person of low birth; rascal, scoundrel; bastard; base, lowborn”
  5. Englishgadling

From Middle English gadelyng (“companion in arms; man, fellow; a person of low birth; rascal, scoundrel; bastard; base, lowborn”), gadeling (“vagabond”), from Old English geaduling, gædeling (“kinsman, fellow, companion in arms, comrade”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaduling, from Proto-Germanic *gadulingaz, *gadilingaz (“relative, kinsman”), equivalent to gad + -ling. Related to Old English ġegada (“comrade, companion”).

More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

gadling. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gadling

MLA

“gadling.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gadling. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gadling,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gadling.

Source: gadling on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.