Change″ling, n. [Change + -ling.] 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 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.