hinderling

H4I1N1D2E1R1L1I1N1G2

noun

A worthless, degenerate person or animal.

OriginMiddle English hinderling ← Old English hinderling →
Scrabble 15
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Meanings

nounhinderling (plural hinderlings)

plural hinderlings · alternative hinderlin

  1. UKdialectalA worthless, degenerate person or animal.

    An animal you deem good for nothing, you may term a hinderling.

    1813, Joseph Neef, The Method of Instructing Children Rationally in the Arts of Writing and Reading
    3 more examples

    How say you, my lusty compeers; shall we permit a hinderlin to sit at board with us, and brand us with the name of cowards?

    1808, Joseph Strutt, [Walter Scott], “Section VII. Chapter II.”, in [Walter Scott], editor, Queenhoo-Hall, a Romance: And Ancient Times, a Drama. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for John Murray, […]; and Archibald Constable & Co. […], →OCLC, page 155

    […] from which the West Saxons, namely the men of Exeter have a saying of the greatest contempt, in that when moved by the highest wrath they call one another a hinderling, that is, one sunk down from all honor.

    1889, John Milton Stearns, The germs and developments of the laws of England

    "How? How do I know? Know that you are there or know that you are a rossamünderling? An ouranin? A manikin? A hinderling? A pink-lips? A fake-foe? […]"

    2010, D. M. Cornish, Factotum
  2. datedin pluralThe buttocks; the posterior.

Origin

  1. Old Englishhinderling“a mean wretch, a sneak”
  2. Middle Englishhinderling“a laggard, coward”
  3. Englishhinderling

"Worthless person" sense: from Middle English hinderling (“a laggard, coward”), from Old English hinderling (“a mean wretch, a sneak”), equivalent to hinder + -ling. Compare hilding.

More words from Middle English, Old English

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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