stripling
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of stripling
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at strip 2, -ling 1
Explanation
You can use the old-fashioned noun stripling to talk about a teenager, though few people these days will know what you're talking about. Like many old words in English, the -ling in this one clues you up that it's a smaller version of the real thing. Exactly how the strip part applies is lost in the mists of time, but it may have to do with being thin as a strip from lacking the muscular development of full manhood: the word stripling is a somewhat poetic epithet for a youth.
Vocabulary lists containing stripling
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
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Mythology
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 19–24
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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.
Over the past decade, Houston estimated, he and Stripling might have traded messages about markets and clients “25 to 50 times a day.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 17, 2026
Stripling checked with a basketball agent, who said he represents 24 college players that each have a different money manager.
From Los Angeles Times • May 17, 2026
For Ross Stripling, baseball was something of an accidental career.
From Los Angeles Times • May 17, 2026
Instead of giving up on baseball when he needed Tommy John surgery, his father encouraged Stripling to use the yearlong rehabilitation process as a way to explore what a future without baseball might look like.
From Los Angeles Times • May 17, 2026
I tell you Bludyard Stripling ought to be our poet laureate.
From Captain Jinks, Hero by Beard, Daniel Carter
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.
