changeling
Americannoun
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a child surreptitiously or unintentionally substituted for another.
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(in folklore) an ugly, stupid, or strange child left by fairies in place of a pretty, charming child.
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Philately. a postage stamp that, by accident or intention, has been chemically changed in color.
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Archaic.
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a renegade or turncoat.
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an imbecile.
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noun
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a child believed to have been exchanged by fairies for the parents' true child
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archaic
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an idiot
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a fickle or changeable person
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Etymology
Origin of changeling
Explanation
A changeling is a child who is suspected to not be a couple’s real child. As the myth goes, a changeling was substituted by fairies. Do you ever feel like your parents might not be your real parents? Then maybe you’re a changeling. A changeling is part of a switcheroo by fairies who switch out a couple’s real baby with another baby. The new baby is the changeling. Fortunately, fairies are mythical creatures, so the concept of a changeling is also fanciful. The -ling part appears in many other Middle and Old English words: underling, hireling, duckling, and yearling, to name a few.
Vocabulary lists containing changeling
A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Wuthering Heights
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The Road
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That metaphor of the outcast changeling, rejected for who she is at her core by a rigid society, earned a loyal following — and accolades, including an Eisner Award and a National Book Award nomination.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 15, 2023
I am also wondering if Vadic’s boss — obscured by, uh, changeling goo — is someone we will find familiar in the future.
From New York Times • Mar. 9, 2023
A New York Times review of the film said Oberon had "perfectly caught the restless, changeling spirit of the Brontë heroine".
From BBC • Apr. 15, 2022
Gretel may or may not be a fairy changeling, although given the fact that she has two pupils in each eye, she probably is.
From Slate • Mar. 6, 2019
It was as if he were a changeling, a troubled child not so secretly adopted by the Icelanders, but with love and without foreboding.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
