English

Noun

codling ‎(plural codlings)

1. A small, young cod
   • 1922, Hugh Lofting, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, part 4, chapter 2, The Fidgit's Story:

     “Here a couple of old men in whiskers and spectacles leant over us, making strange sounds. Some codling had got caught in the net the same time as we were. These the old men threw back into the sea; but us they seemed to think very precious. …”

2. A hake (cod-related food fish), notably from the genus Urophycis.

Etymology 2

codle +‎ -ing

Verb

codling

1. present participle of codle

Etymology 3

• Some dictionaries including Merriam-Webster online list Middle English querdlyng, -lyng being equivalent to modern -ling.
• Some dictionaries including Collins online list “Unknown”.

Alternative forms

• codlin

Noun

codling ‎(plural codlings)

1. A small, immature apple
   • 1601–02, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 1, scene 5:

     Malvolio: Not yet old enough for a man, nor yong enough
     for a boy: as a squash is before tis a pescod, or a Codling
     when tis almost an Apple: Tis with him in standing water,
     betweene boy and man. He is verie well-fauour'd,
     and he speakes verie shrewishly: One would thinke his
     mothers milke were scarse out of him

   • 1800, Hannah Glasse and Maria Wilson, The Complete Confectioner, Creams, &c.:

     To make Codling Cream.
     Take twenty fair codlings, core them, beat them in a mortar with a pint of cream, strain it into a dish, put into it some crumbs of brown bread, with a little-sack, and dish it up.

2. Any of various greenish, elongated English apple varieties, used for cooking

See also codling moth, which plant their larvae in apples.

References

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967