noun
- Older Use: Disparaging. a clergyman with a shaven or tonsured head.
- a young fellow; youngster.
noun archaic
- derogatory a priest or clergyman with a shaven head
- a young fellow; youth
n.contemptuous term for a friar, literally “shaven person,” 1520s, from shave + -ling. “Very common in 16th and 17th c.” [OED]. Also as an adjective (1570s).