(Only in nonce-uses.) [f. FATHER sb. + -LING.] A little father. Used a. as an affectionate mode of address; b. in contempt.
1625. Ussher, Answ. Jesuit, 282. These bastard fatherlings in their Nicene Creed, did not onely insert this clause, Hee descended to the places under the earth; but added also for further amplification, Whom Hell it selfe trembled at.
1826. Blackw. Mag., XX., Dec., 847/2. In what nation, for example, but the German, does a daughter address her father as her “dear little fatherling?”
