English edit

Etymology edit

fresh +‎ -ling

Adjective edit

freshling (not comparable)

  1. (poetic) freshly grown
    • 1832-1837, John Clare, “O quiet living solitude”, in Poems of the Middle Period[1], →ISBN, page 52:
      There comes the gentle steps of spring / So delicate of hues & fair / Rich greens—& glad birds glossy wing / Fanning the freshling hedges there
    • 1907, Vernon Wade Wagar, Pocket Tokens, and Other Poems[2], page 20:
      He blundered through the lighted stretch of fresh strewn hours, / Nor looked to profit at glad life in freshling flowers

Noun edit

freshling (plural freshlings)

  1. An inexperienced person; a neophyte.
    • 1922, Thomas Hardy, “A House with a History”, in Late Lyrics and Earlier[3]:
      Mere freshlings are they, blank of brow, / Who read not how / Its prime had passed before / Their raw equipments, scenes, and says / Afflicted its memoried face, / That had seen every larger phase / Of human ways / Before these filled the place.

Related terms edit