hareling

English

Alternative forms

• hare-ling

Etymology

From hare +‎ -ling.

Noun

hareling (plural harelings)

1. (rare) A young or diminutive hare.

   Hyponym: leveret

   • 1886, Edward Hugessen Knatchbull-Hugessen Baron Brabourne, Friends and Foes from Fairy Land, page 352:

     I'm coming, I'm coming, the nice old stoat, who is so fond of tender harelings.

   • 1978, Leea Virtanen, Children's Lore, page 67:

     In central Finland first-year children are greeted with "Hello, big-eyed, long eared harelings", using a dialect word for a young hare born in August, […]

   • 2002, Tom Clark, Edward Dorn: A World of Difference, page 327:

     The family's proliferating rabbit population was memorialized in The Hareling, a children's book done as a cottage project, with Ed producing the text - about a newborn rabbit found in the fields — to accompany Helene's drawings.

   • 2014, Nick Groom, The Seasons:

     The hare, the hare-kin,
     Old Big-bum, Old Bouchart,
     The hare-ling, the frisky one, […]