Meanings
plural wagelings
- One who is hired for wages, especially one motivated solely by money; a hireling.
It is hardly to be hoped, that in any future Socialism, the wagelings, merely as such, or while penniless, may touch, like Pharoah's bondmen, 80 per cent. of their produce.
1883, The Christian socialist - Volumes 1-2, page 1703 more examples
Thy king is neither so well learned, nor so courteous as I had deemed, whereas he biddeth me come to him and he will take me to wife: forsooth, I am no wageling of him to go at his command.
1896, William Morris, Old French Romances Done into EnglishSuch a “rule” would seem entirely too loose, and itself too “speculative,” to admit of anything like a reasonable and practical application, even if it is to be considered as resting upon sound doctrine. rather than as repugnant to the spirit, if not directly opposed to the letter, of the law in regard to wageling contracts.
1905, The Lawyers Reports Annotated - Volume 44, page 376When, confronted by statistics "proving" that such and such a factory could produce only x aircraft, Beaverbrook ridiculed the statisticians; what he did was to tear up their arid arithmetical exercises and bring to Production the living influence of a willing worker as against a driven wageling.
1952, Flight International - Volumes 61-62, page 545
Origin
Cite this entry
wageling. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wageling
“wageling.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wageling. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wageling,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wageling.
Source: wageling on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.