stripling
Other forms: striplings
You can use the old-fashioned noun stripling to talk about a teenager, though few people these days will know what you're talking about.
Like many old words in English, the -ling in this one clues you up that it's a smaller version of the real thing. Exactly how the strip part applies is lost in the mists of time, but it may have to do with being thin as a strip from lacking the muscular development of full manhood: the word stripling is a somewhat poetic epithet for a youth.
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a juvenile between the onset of puberty and maturitysynonyms: adolescent, teen, teenagertypes:moda British teenager or young adult in the 1960s; noted for their clothes consciousness and opposition to the rockerspachucoa Mexican-American teenager who belongs to a neighborhood gang and who dresses in showy clothespunk, punk rockera teenager or young adult who is a performer (or enthusiast) of punk rock and a member of the punk youth subculturerockera teenager or young adult in the 1960s who wore leather jackets and rode motorcyclestype of:
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
Vocabulary lists containing stripling
Schoolmaster Ichabod Crane competes for the attention of Katrina Van Tassel while being menaced by a local legend—a headless horseman who haunts the outskirts of town. Read the etexthere.
Originally published in 1942, Edith Hamilton's collection of myths is an essential text for students of the ancient world.
In this epic poem, clever Odysseus attempts to find his way home after the end of the Trojan War. Learn these words from the translation by Robert Fitzgerald. Here are links to our lists for the book: Books 1–7, Books 8–13, Books 14–18, Books 19–24