Dictionary

hareling en · NOUN

Etymology

From hare + -ling.

Meanings

1. (rare) A young or diminutive hare.
   • I'm coming, I'm coming, the nice old stoat, who is so fond of tender harelings. 1886, Edward Hugessen Knatchbull-Hugessen Baron Brabourne, Friends and Foes from Fairy Land, page 352:
   • 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, […] 1978, Leea Virtanen, Children's Lore, page 67:
   • 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. 2002, Tom Clark, Edward Dorn: A World of Difference, page 327:
   • The hare, the hare-kin, Old Big-bum, Old Bouchart, The hare-ling, the frisky one, […] 2014, Nick Groom, The Seasons:

Forms