eggling

eggling

English

Etymology 1

Presumably from *eggle (“to sell eggs”) +‎ -ing. Compare English eggler (“seller of eggs”).

Noun

eggling (uncountable)

1. (archaic) The sale of eggs; the trade of an eggler.
   • 1938, Ireland. Oireachtas. Dáil, Parliamentary debates; official report (volume 73, page 734)

     No eggler will allow eggs to be contaminated, because he wants to sell at the best price he can get […] If the House says it is, then in my opinion the majority of those people must get out of eggling […]

   • 1945, Flora Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford

     The death of Dobbin of old age had put an end to his master's eggling, for he had no capital with which to buy another horse.

Etymology 2

From egg +‎ -ling.

Noun

eggling (plural egglings)

1. A small, miniature, undersized, or underdeveloped egg.
   • "Ode X" in 1834, Charles L. S. Jones, American Lyrics

     One Lovling scarcely's fledg'd. One, yet,
     An eggling still remains;
     A third, from forth the broken shell,
     In chirping notes, complains.

   • 2007, Robert J. Sawyer, Foreigner:

     But now the little Other eggling was making loud peeping sounds. It was hungry.

Anagrams

• legging