changeling Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a person of subnormal intelligence
    retard; half-wit; idiot; imbecile; moron; cretin.
  2. noun a child secretly exchanged for another in infancy

WordNet

Change"ling noun
Etymology
Change + -ling.
Definitions
  1. One who, or that which, is left or taken in the place of another, as a child exchanged by fairies.
    Such, men do changelings call, so changed by fairies' theft. Spenser.
    The changeling [a substituted writing] never known. Shak.
  2. A simpleton; an idiot. Macaulay.
    Changelings and fools of heaven, and thence shut out. Wildly we roam in discontent about. Dryden.
  3. One apt to change; a waverer. "Fickle changelings." Shak.
Change"ling adjective
Definitions
  1. Taken or left in place of another; changed. "A little changeling boy." Shak.
  2. Given to change; inconstant. Obs.
    Some are so studiously changeling. Boyle.

Webster 1913