youngster Now chiefly colloq.
(ˈjʌŋstə(r))
Forms: see young; also 6–7 yonckster, ounster.
[f. young a. + -ster, suggested by younker.]
1. A young person, esp. a young man, and, formerly, a lively or vigorous young fellow; † a novice. Now only as extension of sense 3 with connotation of inexperience or immaturity.
| 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 23 Menaphon,..a man..loued of the Nymphes, as the paragon of all their countrey youngsters. 1594 Nashe Unfort. Trav. Wks. (Grosart) V. 158, I am halfe in a iealozie hee is some fantasticall amorous yonckster, who to dishonor me hath hyr'd you to this stratagem. 1642 H. More Song of Soul i. ii. xxxviii, A youngster gent, With bever cockt. 1670 Eachard Cont. Clergy 18, I cannot foresee any other Remedy, but that most of those University Youngsters must fall to the Parish. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Youngster, an airy, brisk young Man; a raw or unexperienced Youth, a Novice. 1798 Lit. Mem. Living Authors I. 116 This..is adapted to youngsters rather than the higher classes of readers. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. Hannah, John Wilson has no rival,..for the Robert Ellis, whom certain youngsters would fain exalt to a co-partnery of fame, is simply nobody. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Youngster, a novitiate in any thing. 1866 A. Oxenden Our Church ii. 15 If, for instance, we wanted a Counsellor, we should not consult a mere youngster. |
| attrib. 1623 Lisle ælfric on O. & N. Test. 36 They called straight vnto him their yongster captain. |
2. Familiarly applied to a boy or junior seaman on board ship (
cf. younker 2 b); also to a junior officer in the army or navy.
| 1608 Relat. Trav. W. Bush B 4 b, At length a nimble yonckster gets him to the very top of the foremast. 1802 C. James Milit. Dict., Youngsters, a familiar term to signify the junior officers of a troop or company. The word youngster is like-used in the navy. 1850 Hannay Sing. Font. v. v, The shrill, squeaking voices of ‘youngsters’ in the tops. 1857 Chamb. Jrnl. 9 May 290/2 Nowhere was the excitement more intense than in the midshipmen's berth, and on no one had the intelligence a more surprising effect than on Bobstay, our junior youngster. |
3. A young person who is not of age; a child,
esp. a boy.
colloq.| 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. vii. §20 Appetite..which is elder Brother to Reason,..is sure..to take the advantage of drawing all to his own side: And Will..is but at best a Football or Top between those Youngsters who prove very unfortunately matched. 1788 Cowper Pity for Poor Afr. 21 A youngster at school, more sedate than the rest. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. iv, ‘Now for the cake,’ said Mas'r George..; and with that the youngster flourished a large knife over the article in question. 1886 Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. cxxviii. 3 The wife is busy all over the house, but the youngsters are busiest at meal-times. |
4. A young animal.
| 1849 W. S. Mayo Kaloolah xxxvii. (1851) 341 A youngster of a crocodile who had come out of the water. 1854 Poultry Chron. I. 598 All the chickens hatched prior to the 22nd of May, dwindled away one by one, and scarcely left a single youngster from many clutches. 1873 Baily's Mag. Nov. 193 The rest of the youngsters [sc. young racehorses]..had gone away for change of air to Newmarket. |