▪ I. puling, vbl. n.
(ˈpjuːlɪŋ)
[f. pule v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb pule; whining, plaintive piping; a complaint.
| 1540 R. Hyrde tr. Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. ii. v. (1557) 83 The women will..ofte complayne and vexe their housbandes, and angre them withe peuysshe puelynge. 1625 Bacon Ess., Masques & Triumphs (Arb.) 540 Let the Songs be Loud, and Cheerefull, and not Chirpings, or Pulings. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes xxix, Be a man, Jack, and have no more of this puling. |
† b. One who pules; a weakling. Obs.
| 1579–80 North Plutarch (1895) I. 29 Catoes sonne..was such a weake pulinge, that he could not away with much hardnesse. |
▪ II. puling, ppl. a.
(ˈpjuːlɪŋ)
[f. pule v. + -ing2.]
1. Crying as a child, whining, feebly wailing; weakly querulous. Mostly contemptuous.
| 1529 More Suppl. Soulys Wks. 299/2 So much and in suche wise as we sely pore pewling sowles neither can deuise nor vtter. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. v. 185 A wretched puling foole, A whining mammet. 1648 Milton Tenure Kings (1650) 6 The unmaskuline Rhetorick of any puling Priest. 1781 Cowper Expost. 474 While yet thou [Britain] wast a grov'ling puling chit. 1857 W. Collins Dead Secret ii. i, [She] is not one of the puling, sentimental sort. |
† 2. Pining, ailing, weakly, sickly. Obs.
| 1549 Chaloner Erasm. on Folly F j b, How weake and pewlyng his childhode. 1641 Brome Joviall Crew ii. Wks. 1873 III. 382 As well as puling stomacks are made strong By eating against Appetite. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1662) ii. 126 Lean land will serve for puling pease and faint fetches. 1706 Phillips, Puling, sickly, weakly, crazy. |
Hence ˈpulingly adv.
| 1600 Dekker Gentle Craft Wks. 1873 I. 42 Mistress, be rul'd by me, and do not speake so pulingly. a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Wilts. (1662) iii. 146 An erected soul, disdaining pulingly to submit to an infamous death. 1904 C. L. Marson Folk Songs Somerset I. p. xi, The so-called cultured people lament pulingly that we have been forgotten in the Divine Almonry. |