ling

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various marine food fishes related to or resembling the cod, especially Molva molva of northern European waters.
2. n. See heather.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A European gadoid fish, Molva molva or M. vulgaris (called by Cuvier Lota molva). It has an elongate form, a short anterior and long posterior dorsal fin, long anal fin, separate convex caudal fin, normal ventral fins, and several large teeth in the lower jaws and vomer, besides a band of small teeth in the jaws and vomer. The ling inhabits the seas of northern Europe, and attains a length of 4 feet. Great numbers of them are caught for food, and either used fresh or salted and dried for future consumption.
2. n. An American gadoid fish, Lota maculosa, better known as the burbot, and also called lawyer and lake-lawyer.
3. n. A chiroid fish, Ophiodon elongatus, better known as cultus-cod.
4. n. Same as bay-cod.
5. n. Same as conger-eel, 3.
6. n. Common heather, Calluna vulgaris.
7. n. The water-chestnut of China, Trapa bicornis, largely used in China for food.
8. n. A termination having usually a diminutive or depreciative force, occurring in designations of persons, as darling, earthling, gadling, gadling, groundling, hireling, lordling, stripling, underling, worldling, etc., or of young animals, etc., as duckling, gosling, kidling, kitling, starling, firstling, nestling, yearling, etc.
9. n. An adverbial suffix, forming adverbs from nouns, as in backling, darkling, groveling, headling, sideling, halfling, etc. It also appears with an added adverbial genitive suffix, -lings, as in backlings. In dialectal use it is often -lin, -lins. In some words it appears in the variant form -long, as in headlong, sidelong. It is not now used in the formation of new words.
10. n. Same as beardy, 3.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any of various marine food fish, of the genus Molva resembling the cod.
2. n. Short for common ling, Molva molva.
3. n. Any of various varieties of heather or broom.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Canada, Canada A large, marine, gadoid fish (Molva vulgaris) of Northern Europe and Greenland. It is valued as a food fish and is largely salted and dried. Called also drizzle.
2. n. Canada, Canada The burbot of Lake Ontario.
3. n. Canada An American hake of the genus Phycis.
4. n. A New Zealand food fish of the genus Genypterus. The name is also locally applied to other fishes, as the cultus cod, the mutton fish, and the cobia.
5. n. (Bot.) Heather (Calluna vulgaris).

WordNet 3.0

1. n. water chestnut whose spiny fruit has two rather than 4 prongs
2. n. common Old World heath represented by many varieties; low evergreen grown widely in the northern hemisphere
3. n. elongated marine food fish of Greenland and northern Europe; often salted and dried
4. n. elongate freshwater cod of northern Europe and Asia and North America having barbels around its mouth
5. n. American hakes