CHANGELING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does changeling mean? 

• CHANGELING (noun)
  The noun CHANGELING has 2 senses:

1. a person of subnormal intelligence

2. a child secretly exchanged for another in infancy

  Familiarity information: CHANGELING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHANGELING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person of subnormal intelligence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

changeling; cretin; half-wit; idiot; imbecile; moron; retard

Hypernyms ("changeling" is a kind of...):

simple; simpleton (a person lacking intelligence or common sense)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "changeling"):

mongoloid (a person suffering from Down syndrome (no longer used technically in this sense, now considered offensive))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A child secretly exchanged for another in infancy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("changeling" is a kind of...):

child; fry; kid; minor; nestling; nipper; shaver; small fry; tiddler; tike; tyke; youngster (a young person of either sex)

 Context examples 

He had no mother—no anything in the way of a relative, that I could discover, except a sister, who fled to America the moment we had taken him off her hands; and he became quartered on us like a horrible young changeling.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

You mocking changeling—fairy-born and human-bred!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He continued to send for me punctually the moment the clock struck seven; though when I appeared before him now, he had no such honeyed terms as love and darling on his lips: the best words at my service were provoking puppet, malicious elf, sprite, changeling, &c.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)