overling
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From over -ling on analogy with underling, or as a revived or dialectal term from Middle English overling (“a superior”), equivalent to over -ling.
Noun
[edit]overling (plural overlings)
- (rare) A superior.
- 1917, Rudyard Kipling, Mesopotamia (poem)
- But the idle-minded overlings who quibbled while they died, [...]
- 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:
- Reflex laughs from the underlings present, though only grim smiles from the overlings.
- 1917, Rudyard Kipling, Mesopotamia (poem)
- (UK dialectal) A ruler; master.
Antonyms
[edit]References
[edit]- Oxford English Dictionary