Worldling

[f. WORLD sb. + -LING. Cf. G. weltling.]

  1.  One who is devoted to the interests and pleasures of the world; a worldly or worldly minded person.

1549.  Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Jude, 23 b. They bee worldelinges, and geuyng them selues in to the seruice of worldly affectes.

1553.  Saunders, in Coverdale, Lett. Martyrs (1564), 214. You haue dronke of the holy spirite with other, vnto whom the knowledge hereof semeth not folyshnes (as it doth vnto worlynges).

a. 1614.  J. Melvill, Autob. & Diary (Wodrow Soc.), 271. The godlie, for his … doctrine, lovit him; the warldlings, for his parentage and place, reverenced him.

a. 1659.  Bp. Brownrig, Serm. (1674), I. xxvii. 350. A Worldlings thoughts, like a Fools, are all for the present.

1700.  Dryden, Ceyx & Alcyone, 186. The covetous Worldling in his anxious Mind Thinks only on the Wealth he left behind.

1707.  Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 19. Trifles, with which those Worldlings are taken up.

1821.  Byron, Mar. Fal., II. i. The world will think with worldlings; but my heart Has still been in my duties.

1844.  Lingard, Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858), II. App. H. 369. The various pretexts under which Worldlings delude themselves and neglect the welfare of their Souls.

1912.  Lady Burghclere, Life James, 1st Dk. Ormonde, I. xv. 474. For a gay worldling of no known occupation, Manning’s correspondence was singularly bulky and systematic.

  † 2.  a. A ‘citizen of the world,’ cosmopolite. b. An inhabitant of the world. Obs.

1586.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1589), 329. Socrates said, that he tooke not himselfe to be either an Athenian or a Grecian, but a worldling.

c. 1600.  Timon, I. iv. (Shaks. Soc., 1842), 13. Gelas. What cuntreyman, I pray you, sir? Pseud. A Wordling.

1625.  N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. viii. 133. God revealed not this art [of navigation] to the old worldlings.

1687.  A. Lovell, trans. Bergerac’s Com. Hist., 26. Which our Worldlings call a Moon also.

1816.  Byron, Ch. Har., III. liii. The heart must Leap kindly back to kindness, though disgust Hath wean’d it from all worldlings.

  3.  a. Comb., as worldling-like adv.

a. 1639.  Wotton, Poems, Descr. Countrey’s Recreat., v. The fond Credulity Of silly Fish, which worldling-like, still look Upon the bait, but never on the hook.

  b.  attrib. or adj. Worldly.

1720.  Welton, Suffer. Son of God, II. xiv. 377. Those … conceal a Wicked and Worldling-heart, under the Garb … of Religion.

1845.  J. C. Mangan, German Anthol., I. 74.