[f. KING sb. + -LING.]

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  1.  A little or petty king. (Less contemptuous than kinglet.)

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1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. IV. Handie-Crafts, 381. Prince of some Peasants … And silly Kingling of a simple Village.

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1658.  Cleveland, Rustic Rampant, Wks. (1687), 477. This Upstart Kingling would not wholly move by Example.

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1764.  Churchill, Candidate, 82. Enough of Kinglings, and enough of Kings.

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1812.  Southey, Omniana, II. 193. The romantic adventures of a little Kingling of Ithaca.

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1884.  Tennyson, Becket, Prol. You could not see the King for the kinglings.

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  † 2.  (See quot.) Obs. rare.

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1658.  2nd Narr. late Parlt., 2. A Catalogue of the Kinglings, or the names of those Seventy persons (most of them being the Protectors Kinsmen, and Sallery-men) that voted for Kingship.

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