darling

CEFRB1

/ˈdɑːlɪŋ/

noun · adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A person you love or like very much.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Very attractive or pleasing.

Examples

  • My sweet darling, I miss you so much.

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

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A favourite.

  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.

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

More examples

In context

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

  • Let's dance, my darling.

  • What a darling outfit!

Synonyms

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Nearby

Origin

noun

The noun is derived from Middle English dereling, derelyng (“beloved person; beloved of God, devout Christian”), from Old English dīerling, dēorling (“favourite, darling; minion”), from Proto-West Germanic *diuriling, from Proto-Germanic *diurijalingaz, from *diurijaz (“beloved, dear; expensive”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“hot, warm; to burn”), or *dweh₂- (“distant, long; to remove, separate”)) + *-ilingaz (suffix forming (diminutive) nouns with the sense of ‘belonging to; coming from’). By surface analysis, dear + -ling (suffix meaning ‘immature; small’). The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun. The verb is also derived from the...