Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One who aspires to wittiness.
- n. One who has little wit.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A pretender to wit; a would-be wit.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A person who has little wit or understanding; a pretender to wit or smartness.
Etymologies
- wit + -ling (Wiktionary)
Examples
“He's the underdog you root for; a victimized witling in a land of condescending Talented.”
“Azhiri that lack the Talent are known as witlings and occupy a lower social status ... except for Pelio, a witling since birth but afforded a higher social standing since he happens to be the Prince of the land of Summer.”
“It is certainly not John the Baptist, nor John the Evangelist, nor James the Greater, nor James the Less; he must inevitably be some witling of a Hun, to write such abominable impertinence, or some ill-conditioned, malicious”
“Nay, though it well may raise a smile of ridicule (not on the lips of a grave man perhaps, but of some facetious witling) to hear me say it, a beauty like the cadence of sweet music190 dwells even in pots and pans set out in neat array: and so, in general, fair things ever show more fair when orderly bestowed.”
“More than one captain and more than one book on war had told Conan what his own sense said: Never trust your enemy to be a witling.”
Conan and The Mists of Door
“And you should call your chief groom a fool, for letting into the field a witling who'll touch another's steel without asking.”
Conan and The Mists of Door
“Conan knew he must sound like a witling, but in this matter, he understood no more than one.”
Conan and The Gods of The Mountain
“Had the Ichiribu sent a witling to serve her and the Cimmerian?”
Conan and The Gods of The Mountain
“It was easy for Vidal to imagine what must be going on inside-easy to picture that smug, orphaned witling Keighvin Silverhair barking orders to weak mortals, marshaling them to fight.”
The Chrome Borne
“How long must I wait for you to show courage, witling?”
Omnibus
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘witling’.
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phrontistery-w
from phrontistery.info
wack, wadmal, waftage, wafture, wagonette, wagtail, wainage, wainscot, wair, waits, wakerife, waldflute and 282 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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You loser!
indolent, persona non grata, addled, prolix, otiose, insipid, myopic, sophomoric, sequacious, ragabash, jolterhead, sleathy and 26 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. II
cicurate, circumforaneous, codger, comiconomenclaturist, constable, contradistinction, contraindicated, counterpane, coxcomb, decalcomania, decanal, decoction and 307 more...
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wiredweird's Words
cubane, diyne, logit, cnidoblast, fid, witling, probit, nullipara, menstruum, scrotal, carbonium, amitotic and 107 more...
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bertilak's Words
antidisestablishm..., feldercarb, wainscoting, eleemosynary, oxymoron, fuliginous, libration, lammergeier, saxifrage, ichor, lambent, smaragdine and 414 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
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Gigglesomes
Words that make me giggle.
sackbut, beshrew, hubbub, futz, tchotchke, oolong, newt, dingo, squishy, fjord, squirt, dangler and 107 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3248 more...
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CordialCactus's Words
insouciant, curmudgeon, sagacious, sesquipedalian, malapert, witling, farcical, disingenuous, patois, obfuscation, ennui, fecund and 20 more...
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The Best Words
Fiske's book
witling, wiseling, xanthodont, wittol, vulgarian, Philistine, virago, viraginous, valetudinarian, uxorious, philogyny, uxoricide and 2 more...
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A Wit List
wit, witty, witless, outwit, nitwit, witting, unwitting, inwit, witticism, witling, iwit, fat-witted and 64 more...
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jrgoddess's Words
piebald, crepuscular, witling, bellicose, expatiate, effluvia, saturnine, putative, autodidact, asset, lustrum, scribe and 1 more...
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ling-o
popeling, reckling, wiseling, witling, wormling, wreckling, wolfling, witherling, whigling, whelpling, weedling, weanling and 4 more...
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words
Tweets
Looking for tweets for witling.

yarb "But if witlings should be inclined to attack this account, let them have the candour to quote what I have offered in my defence."
- Boswell, in Life of Johnson Jan 21, 2012
pavonine 1. One who aspires to wittiness.
2. One who has little wit. Dec 16, 2007