whitling Sc. and north.
(ˈhwɪtlɪŋ)
Also 6 whiddelynge, 9 whitlin.
[f. white a. + -ling. Cf. G. weissling whiting.
Late OE. hw{iacu}tling ‘glaucus’ is perh. the whiting.]
A fish of the salmon family, not certainly identified; app. the young of the bull-trout, Salmo eriox. Also whitling-trout. Cf. whiting n. 1 b (a).
| 1597–8 Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 111 For floukes and eght whiddelynges, xviij{supd}. 1769 J. Wallis Nat. Hist. Northumbld. I. 389 The Whitling-Trout..is taken in the Till and Tweed from ten to twenty inches. 1793 Statist. Acc. Scot. VIII. 488 In some parts of the Ern, there are..great numbers of sea trouts... The fishermen call them whitlings. 1830 in T. Doubleday Coquet-Dale Fishing Songs (1852) 84 The Tweed, he may brag o' his sawmon, An' blaw of his whitlins the Till. 1867 F. Francis Bk. Angling ix. 297 There is a disputed point as regards the bull-trout, whether or no he is the veritable ‘whitling’. |
| attrib. 1769 [see above]. 1834 Jardine in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club I. No. 2. 52 They..are taken with whitling flies. 1847 Stoddart Angler's Comp. 84 On rivers, like the Tweed or Tay, I recommend the use of a whitling hook. |