English

edit

Etymology

edit

From queen +‎ -ling.

Noun

edit

queenling (plural queenlings)

  1. A queenlet; a petty queen.
    • 1857, F. G. S., “Thames Rowing”, in John Saunders, Westland Marston, editors, The National Magazine, volume II, page 396:
      I must pull onwards; so, Queenling, au revoir! What, not a kiss of the hand to me, your first visitor, your only lover this day!
    • 1859, Alphonse de Lamartine, chapter V, in J. M. H., transl., Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, Houghton Mifflin Company, page 17:
      “Notre petite reinette Ecossaise,” said Catharine de Medici herself, who looked upon her with distaste, “our little Scottish queenling has only to smile in order to turn all the heads in France!”
    • 1901, Mary Boole Hinton, “Idolatry”, in Other Notes, Neale Publishing Company, page 31:
      There! Sit thee down on the trackway / And croon thy dolly a song; / Let the procession sweep by thee, / Queenling, whom none may wrong.
    • 1907, Henry Christopher McCook, “Ant Queens and the Foundation of Formicaries” (chapter II), in Nature's Craftsmen: Popular Studies of Ants and Other Insects, Harper & Brothers, page 23:
      I have suspected that, notwithstanding this vigilance, a queenling of exceptional enterprise occasionally would escape, and go solitary to her destiny.
    • 2005, Stuart Hill, The Cry of the Icemark, The Chicken House, page 413:
      The time has come to crush this queenling and her little country. Their arrogance is beginning to annoy me.