Darlingname/ˈdɑːlɪŋ/

• 1

  An English and Scottish surname transferred from the nickname, originally a nickname from darling.

  • Richard and David Darling, founders of Codemasters, a multimillion-pound computer game company, dropped out of school aged 15 and 16 to write computer games […]
• 2

  A placename

• 3

  A placename

• 4

  A placename

• 5

  Synonym of Baagandji; Ellipsis of Darling language; The Australian aboriginal language spoken along this river in New South Wales.

darlingnoun/ˈdɑːlɪŋ/

• 1

  Often used as an affectionate term of address: a person who is very dear to one.

  • Pass the wine, would you, darling?
  • [I]t is better to be / An old mans derling than a yong mans werling.
• 2

  A person who is kind, sweet, etc., and thus lovable; a pet, a sweetheart; also, an animal or thing which is cute and lovable.

  • The girl next door picks up all my shopping for me. She is such a darling.
  • When the Crocodile Queen came home, she found / That her eggs were broken and scattered around, / And that six young Princes, darlings all, / Were missing, for none of them answer'd her call.
• 3

  A favourite.

  • And in ſo muche the more peril and haſard of the ſaid diſeaſes [“ambicion, auarice, riottous exceſſe, hatred, enuye, and ſuche others”] do the princes ſtand, as they are more then others made wantons ⁊ derelynges of fortune, and haue lybertie withoute checke or controllemente to fulfyll their owne ſenſuall luſtes and appetites.
  • [T]hat handkercher / Did an Egyptian to my mother giue, / […] ſhe told her vvhile ſhe kept it, / Tvvould make her amiable, and ſubdue my father / Intirely to her loue: […] [T]ake heed on't, / Make it [the handkerchief] a darling, like your pretious eye, / To looſe, or giue avvay, vvere ſuch perdition, / As nothing elſe could match.
• 4

  A favourite.

  • Mary, the youngest daughter, was always her mother’s darling.
  • And tis a common obſervation in Familites, that the moſt diſcountenanc'd child oft makes better proof, then the dearling.
• 5

  A favourite.

  • a media darling
  • a darling of the theatre
• 6

  obsoleteA favourite.

  • When kyng Henry perceiued, that the cõmons [commons] wer thus ſtomacked and bent, againſt the Quenes [Margaret of Anjou's] dearlynge William [de la Pole,] Duke of Suffolke, he plainly ſawe, that neither gloſyng woulde ſette, nor diſſimulacion coulde appeace, the continuall clamor of the importunate cõmons: Wherefore to begyn a ſhorte pacificacion in to long a broyle.
  • She [Caroline of Ansbach] immediately became the darling of the Princeſs Sophia [Charlotte of Hanover], vvho vvas acknovvledged in all the Courts of Europe the moſt accompliſhed vvoman of the age in vvhich ſhe lived, and vvho vvas not a little pleaſed vvith the converſation of one in vvhom ſhe ſavv ſo lively an image of her ovvn youth.

darlingadj/ˈdɑːlɪŋ/

• 1

  Very dear; beloved, cherished, favourite.

  • She is my darling wife of twenty-two years.
  • Do thou dred infant, Venus dearling doue, / From her high ſpirit chaſe imperious feare, / And vſe of avvfull Maieſtie remoue: […]
• 2

  Very cute or lovable; adorable, charming, sweet.

  • Well, isn’t that a darling little outfit she has on?
  • Isn't it the darlingest, sweetest, prettiest, little dear darling darling! Oh! did you ever!!

darlingverb/ˈdɑːlɪŋ/

• 1

  informalTo call (someone) "darling" (noun sense 1).

  • The frisky female, we have noticed, has one most unpleasant trick; it is that of darlinging and duckeying and otherwise spooneying her husband … in public. He is invariably, invariably set down as an ass, without its being in the least his fault.
  • Hullo! oh! Maud, darling, I wanted to know— / Great snakes, it's not she!—I want Miss Maud DeVaux.— / I think that I "darlinged" the old man that time. / If I did, I'll sell cheap,—this lot marked down,—one dime.