[f. WILD a. + -LING1 1. Cf. Du. wildeling, G. wildling.]

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  1.  A wild plant or flower: = WILDING A. 2.

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1840.  F. D. Bennett, Whaling Voy., I. 345. The turmeric, hena,… considered too valuable … to remain a wildling.

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1861.  S. Thomson, Wild Fl., III. (ed. 4), 153. His dried garden of wildlings.

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1907.  Daily Chron., 10 July, 3/3. Notes as to the growing of woodland and hedgerow ‘wildlings’ in a garden.

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  2.  A wild creature or animal: = WILDING A. 3.

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1884.  St. James’s Gaz., 4 April, 6/1. I am one of her [sc. nature’s] ‘wildlings.’ [Cf. WILDING A. 2, quot. 1826.]

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1907.  J. H. Crawford, From Fox’s Earth, i. 13. The wildling of the breezy heights is quite as interesting as the wildling of the cool water.

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