darling

«darling» in Mova's school dictionary: a loving word for someone you love: «Come here, darling.» — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a darling, darlings); adjective (darling)

meaning for a pupil

1) Darling is a loving word for someone you love: «Come here, darling.» tree →

2) A darling is a person who is very loved or favoured: the darling of the crowd. tree →

3) (informal) Darling can mean very sweet or lovely: What a darling little puppy! tree →

4) (UK, informal) Some people, often older, call anyone «darling» to be friendly. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life parents call children «darling»; in shops in parts of the UK a friendly assistant may say «There you go, darling.» In stories it shows love or tenderness. It tells the reader the speaker cares, or is trying to sound friendly.

examples

• Goodnight, darling, sleep well. tree →
• Thank you, darling, that's very kind. tree →
• What a darling little kitten! tree →
• She was the darling of the whole school. tree →
• «Mind how you go, darling,» said the lady at the till. tree →
• Grandma calls everyone darling. tree →
• "How darling and beautiful you are!" tree →

note

Used as a way of speaking to someone (like «dear», «love», «sweetheart»). Spelling: darling, not «darlin» (that is how some people say it). Can sound too familiar to strangers in some places.

In the corpora

• "Little darling" said ironically means a badly behaved child.
• Is Ephraim a darling son unto Me?

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «darling» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.