shaveling

S1H4A1V4E1L1I1N1G2

noun

Someone with all or part of their head shaved, notably a tonsured clergyman; a priest or monk.

Scrabble 16

Meanings

nounshaveling (plural shavelings)

plural shavelings

  1. 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
  2. A shaver, stripling, young man physically mature enough to shave.

Synonyms & antonyms

Origin

Translations

Finnish pulipää
  • pulipääsomeone with their head shaved
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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