Meanings
plural shavelings
- derogatoryoftenSomeone with all or part of their head shaved, notably a tonsured clergyman; a priest or monk.
“Bonny times,” he said, “I have lived to see, when a lad of Earl Oslac’s blood is sent out of the land, a beggar and a wolf’s head, for playing a boy’s trick or two, and upsetting a shaveling priest.”
1866, Charles Kingsley, Hereward the Wake, London: Nelson, page 48
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Translations
Finnish pulipää
- pulipääsomeone with their head shaved
Cite this entry
shaveling. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shaveling
“shaveling.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shaveling. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shaveling,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shaveling.
Source: shaveling on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.