Adjacent Words

Changeling definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CHANGELING, n.
1. A child left or taken in the place of another.
2. An idiot; a fool.
3. One apt to change; a waverer.
4. Any thing changed and put in the place of another.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a person of subnormal intelligence [syn: idiot, imbecile, cretin, moron, changeling, half-wit, retard]
2: a child secretly exchanged for another in infancy

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1537 1. archaic turncoat 2. a child secretly exchanged for another in infancy 3. archaic imbecile • changeling adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. a child believed to be substituted for another by stealth, esp. an elf-child left by fairies.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Changeling Change"ling, a. 1. Taken or left in place of another; changed. ``A little changeling boy.'' --Shak. 2. Given to change; inconstant. [Obs.] Some are so studiously changeling. --Boyle.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Changeling Change"ling, n. [Change + -ling.] 1. One who, or that which, is left or taken in the place of another, as a child exchanged by fairies. Such, men do changelings call, so changed by fairies' theft. --Spenser. The changeling [a substituted writing] never known. --Shak. 2. A simpleton; an idiot. --Macaulay. Changelings and fools of heaven, and thence shut out. Wildly we roam in discontent about. --Dryden. 3. One apt to change; a waverer. ``Fickle changelings.'' --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(changelings) A changeling is a child who was put in the place of another child when they were both babies. In stories changelings were often taken or left by fairies. (LITERARY) N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. False-child (left in place of another taken). 2. Oaf, simpleton, fool, dunce. 3. Waverer, shifter, person of fickle mind. 4. Substitute, fraudulent shift.

Moby Thesaurus

agent, alternate, alternative, analogy, backup, change, comparison, copy, counterfeit, deputy, double, dummy, elf child, equal, equivalent, ersatz, exchange, fake, fill-in, ghost, ghostwriter, imitation, locum tenens, makeshift, metaphor, metonymy, next best thing, personnel, phony, pinch hitter, proxy, relief, replacement, representative, reserves, ringer, second string, secondary, sign, spares, stand-in, sub, substituent, substitute, substitution, succedaneum, superseder, supplanter, surrogate, symbol, synecdoche, third string, token, understudy, utility player, vicar, vice-president, vice-regent