darling

noun

1. Often used as an affectionate term of address: a person who is very dear to one.

   “Pass the wine, would you, darling?”

   “[I]t is better to be / An old mans derling than a yong mans werling.”

   “Feare ye not (ô darling) on thy ſide deſtinie runneth.”

   “How ſhall I, void of tears, her death relate, / VVhile on her darling’s bed her mother ſate!”

   “Sleep, sweet babe! my cares beguiling: / Mother sits beside thee smiling: / Sleep, my darling, tenderly!”

2. A person who is kind, sweet, etc., and thus lovable; a pet, a sweetheart; also, an animal or thing which is cute and lovable.

   “The girl next door picks up all my shopping for me. She is such a darling.”

   “When the Crocodile Queen came home, she found / That her eggs were broken and scattered around, / And that six young Princes, darlings all, / Were missing, for none of them answer'd her call.”

   “What did they want, then, or in what manner did he fail in his duty towards those innocent darlings [his children]?”

   “With every flock of sheep and girls are one or two enormous mastiffs, which could eat one, and do bark nastily. But when the children call them and introduce them to you formally, they stand to be patted, and eat out of your hand; they are great darlings, and necessary against bear and wolf.”

3. A favourite.

   “And in ſo muche the more peril and haſard of the ſaid diſeaſes [“ambicion, auarice, riottous exceſſe, hatred, enuye, and ſuche others”] do the princes ſtand, as they are more then others made wantons ⁊ derelynges of fortune, and haue lybertie withoute checke or controllemente to fulfyll their owne ſenſuall luſtes and appetites.”

   “[T]hat handkercher / Did an Egyptian to my mother giue, / […] ſhe told her vvhile ſhe kept it, / Tvvould make her amiable, and ſubdue my father / Intirely to her loue: […] [T]ake heed on't, / Make it [the handkerchief] a darling, like your pretious eye, / To looſe, or giue avvay, vvere ſuch perdition, / As nothing elſe could match.”

   “Politics were never more corrupt and brutal; and Trade, that pride and darling of our ocean, that educator of nations, that benefactor in spite of itself, ends in shameful defaulting, bubble, and bankruptcy, all over the world.”

4. A favourite.

   “Mary, the youngest daughter, was always her mother’s darling.”

   “And tis a common obſervation in Familites, that the moſt diſcountenanc'd child oft makes better proof, then the dearling.”

   “[…] John vvas the Darling, he had all the good Bits, vvas cramm'd vvith good Pullet, Chicken, Pig, Gooſe and Capon, vvhile Miſs had only a little Oatmeal and VVater, or a dry Cruſt vvithout Butter.”

   “Exhausted fathers thinned the blood, / You curse the legacy of pain; / Darling of an infected brood, / You feel disaster climb the vein.”

   “But Richmond, his grandfather's darling, after one thoughtful glance cast under his lashes at that uncompromising countenance, appeared to lose himself in his own reflections.”

5. (broadly)A favourite.

   “a media darling”

   “a darling of the theatre”

   “[…] Auguſtius Cæſar in his very entrance into affaires, vvhen he vvas a dearling of the Senate, yet in his haranges to the people, vvould ſvveare Ita parentis honores conſequi liceat, (vvhich vvas no leſſe then the Tyranny,) […]”

   “The Generall of the Romanes in this action vvas Titus, ſonne to Veſpaſian the Emperour. A prince ſo good, that he vvas ſtyled the Darling of mankind for his ſvveet and loving nature; […]”

   “Then the great knight, the darling of the court, / Loved of the loveliest, into that rude hall / Stept with all grace, […]”

6. (obsolete)A favourite.

   “When kyng Henry perceiued, that the cõmons [commons] wer thus ſtomacked and bent, againſt the Quenes [Margaret of Anjou's] dearlynge William [de la Pole,] Duke of Suffolke, he plainly ſawe, that neither gloſyng woulde ſette, nor diſſimulacion coulde appeace, the continuall clamor of the importunate cõmons: Wherefore to begyn a ſhorte pacificacion in to long a broyle.”

   “She [Caroline of Ansbach] immediately became the darling of the Princeſs Sophia [Charlotte of Hanover], vvho vvas acknovvledged in all the Courts of Europe the moſt accompliſhed vvoman of the age in vvhich ſhe lived, and vvho vvas not a little pleaſed vvith the converſation of one in vvhom ſhe ſavv ſo lively an image of her ovvn youth.”

adj

1. Very dear; beloved, cherished, favourite.

   “She is my darling wife of twenty-two years.”

   “Do thou dred infant, Venus dearling doue, / From her high ſpirit chaſe imperious feare, / And vſe of avvfull Maieſtie remoue: […]”

   “Rough vvindes do ſhake the darling buds of Maie, / And Sommers leaſe hath all too ſhort a date: […]”

   “VVherefore, for the future, I am reſolved, to Acknovvledge my darling faults, though alone, yet aloud; […]”

   “[H]is darling Sons / Hurl'd headlong to partake vvith us, ſhall curſe / Their frail Originals, and faded bliſs, / Faded ſo ſoon.”

2. Very cute or lovable; adorable, charming, sweet.

   “Well, isn’t that a darling little outfit she has on?”

   “Isn't it the darlingest, sweetest, prettiest, little dear darling darling! Oh! did you ever!!”

verb

1. (informal, transitive)To call (someone) "darling" (noun sense 1).

   “The frisky female, we have noticed, has one most unpleasant trick; it is that of darlinging and duckeying and otherwise spooneying her husband … in public. He is invariably, invariably set down as an ass, without its being in the least his fault.”

   “Hullo! oh! Maud, darling, I wanted to know— / Great snakes, it's not she!—I want Miss Maud DeVaux.— / I think that I "darlinged" the old man that time. / If I did, I'll sell cheap,—this lot marked down,—one dime.”

   “Wonderful the way you stage people darling each other. To hear you sometimes, you'd think you were passionately in love.”

   “All the Marys, Janes, Francoises and Mikis darlinged and honeyed me for a day or two then vanished for ever. After a few weeks I could not recall their names or faces.”

   “He was darlinging his wife at every opportunity. They were going to have a silver wedding party. And, according to Geraldine, this was meant to be a dead marriage.”

name

1. An English and Scottish surname transferred from the nickname, originally a nickname from darling.

   “Richard and David Darling, founders of Codemasters, a multimillion-pound computer game company, dropped out of school aged 15 and 16 to write computer games […]”

2. A major river of Queensland and New South Wales, Australia, named for Governor Ralph Darling.
3. The Australian aboriginal language Baagandji, spoken along this river in New South Wales.
4. A small town in the Western Cape province, South Africa.
5. A census-designated place in Quitman County, Mississippi, United States.