Dictionary

hinderling en · NOUN

Etymology

"Worthless person" sense: from Middle English hinderling (“a laggard, coward”), from Old English hinderling (“a mean wretch, a sneak”), equivalent to hinder + -ling. Compare hilding.

Meanings

1. (UK, dialectal) A worthless, degenerate person or animal.
   • An animal you deem good for nothing, you may term a hinderling. 1813, Joseph Neef, The Method of Instructing Children Rationally in the Arts of Writing and Reading:
   • "How? How do I know? Know that you are there or know that you are a rossamünderling? An ouranin? A manikin? A hinderling? A pink-lips? A fake-foe? […]" 2010, D. M. Cornish, Factotum:
   • […] from which the West Saxons, namely the men of Exeter have a saying of the greatest contempt, in that when moved by the highest wrath they call one another a hinderling, that is, one sunk down from all honor. 1889, John Milton Stearns, The germs and developments of the laws of England:
   • How say you, my lusty compeers; shall we permit a hinderlin to sit at board with us, and brand us with the name of cowards? 1808, Joseph Strutt, [Walter Scott], “Section VII. Chapter II.”, in [Walter Scott], editor, Queenhoo-Hall, a Romance: And Ancient Times, a Drama. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for John Murray, […]; and Archibald Constable & Co. […], →OCLC, page 155:
2. (dated, in-plural) The buttocks; the posterior.

Forms