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changeling
[ cheynj-ling ]
noun
- a child surreptitiously or unintentionally substituted for another.
- (in folklore) an ugly, stupid, or strange child left by fairies in place of a pretty, charming child.
- Philately. a postage stamp that, by accident or intention, has been chemically changed in color.
- Archaic.
- a renegade or turncoat.
- an imbecile.
changeling
/ ˈtʃeɪndʒlɪŋ /
noun
- a child believed to have been exchanged by fairies for the parents' true child
- archaic.
- an idiot
- a fickle or changeable person
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Word History and Origins
Origin of changeling1
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Example Sentences
This is more Changeling than Invictus, as far as director Eastwood is concerned.
To be fair, and slightly ashamed of myself, I did not watch Changeling.
Die foolish beoples in the island, they say she is a wechsel-balg—what you call a fairy-elf changeling.
One more story of a "changeling" before we leave the subject.
Everybody believed Ellis to have been a changeling, and one saying of his is well known in that part of the country.
The same writer gives a similar account of the changeling mentioned above, p. 107.
Thiele relates a story in which a wild stallion colt is brought in to smell two babes, one of which is a changeling.
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