arch. [f. YEAN v. + -LING. Cf. EANLING.] A young lamb or kid. Also fig.
1637. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, I. ii. When to their store They add the poor man’s yeanling.
1644. Quarles, Sheph. Orac., i. One of my weaker yeanlings hapt to stray.
1791. Cowper, Odyss., IX. 283. As he milked his ewes … All in their turns, her yeanling [he] gave to each.
1862. Mrs. Norton, Lady of La Garaye, IV. 411. Still to the schools the ancient chiming clock Calls the poor yeanlings of a simple flock.
1869. Swinburne, Ess. & Stud. (1875), 207. Take the young ones to the teat, Left in yeanlings’ penfolds pent.
b. appositive or as adj. That is a yeanling; young or new-born: esp. of a lamb. Also fig.
1658. Topsell’s Four-f. Beasts, 495. The common Epithets expressing the nature of this Beast [sc. the lamb] are these, rough, yeanling [ed. 1607 yearling], weak, unripe, sucking, tender.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 434. The flesh of Lambs or yeanling Kids.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), I. p. xiv. The yeanling kids and cooing turtles.
1812. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., XXXIII. 239. To surround himself with ushers, proportioned to the number of boys, and more advanced in acquirement than these yeanling monitors.
a. 1873. R. Buchanan, Man and Shadow, I. Poet. Wks. 1874, III. 61. By the yeanling Lambkin’s side.
Yeant, obs. f. GIANT: see Y (1) note.
a. 1440. Sir Eglam., 233. Ther dwellyth a yeaunt in a foreste. Ibid., 301. He come where the yeant was.
