godlingn.

1596 W. Lambarde Perambulation of Kent (rev. ed.) 437 What remained..but that altars should be raised,..to this our newe found Godlyng?

1629 W. D. in W. Mure True Crucifixe Pref. You, that Evrye painted wall Grac't with some antik face, some Godling make.

a1638 J. Mede Disc. 2 Peter ii. 1 in Wks. (1672) i. 242 Under-gods, or, if you will, Godlings, which the Greeks call Dæmon-gods.

1693 J. Dryden tr. Persius Satires ii. 25 Thy puny Godlings of inferiour Race Whose humble Statues are content with Brass.

1794 J. Wolcot Pathetic Odes 5 Gods of the earth are Emp'rors, Popes, and Kings, Godlings, our Dukes and Earls, and such fine folk.

1855 P. J. Bailey Mystic 39 Isis twin godlings, silence and the light.

1892 Edinb. Rev. Apr. 471 Gods, godlings and demons.

1941 A. C. Bouquet Compar. Relig. iv. 38 The..small bit of food thrown over the left shoulder by Sussex yokels, to appease some forgotten godlings.

1999 J. Raban Passage to Juneau viii. 433 That a friendly godling would rubber-stamp my plans and wave me on my way.

1611 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. (new ed.) ii. iv. 631 Though Godlings, heer of wood [Fr. un dieutelet de bois], and there of stone, A Brazen heer, and there a Golden one,..On every side would draw his minde astray.

1766 J. Beattie tr. J. Addison Battle Pygmies & Cranes in Poems Several Subj. 155 He finds the puny mansion fallen to earth, Its godlings mouldering on th' abandon'd hearth.

1792 J. Wolcot Epist. to Sir W. Hamilton in Wks. (1812) III. 189 Send the Gods and Godlings back again.

1825 Republican 28 Oct. 539 I think of getting a godling engraved, to bind with an octavo bible.

1958 W. Willetts Chinese Art I. v. 371 The sculptured godlings of Bharhut and Ajaṇtā.

2009 A. S. Byatt Children's Bk. (2010) xi. 143 A rattle in the form of a horned and bearded godling below whose waist a line of carved goatskin became a mother-of-pearl handle.