The Collaborative International Dictionary
Weanling \Wean"ling\, a. & n. from Wean, v.
The weaning of the whelp is the great test of the skill
of the kennel man.
--J. H. Walsh.
Weaning brash. (Med.) See under Brash.
Weanling \Wean"ling\, n. [Wean + -ling.] A child or animal newly weaned; a wean.
Weanling \Wean"ling\, a.
Recently weaned.
--Milton.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1530s, from wean + -ling.
Wiktionary
n. 1 Any young mammal that has been recently weaned. 2 Specifically, a human child that has been recently weaned. 3 Specifically, a young horse that has been weaned from its mother, but is less than one year old (usually 5-12 months old).
Wikipedia
A weanling is an animal that has just been weaned. The term is usually used to refer to a type of young horse, a foal that has been weaned, usually between six months and a year. Once it is a year old, the horse is referred to as a yearling.
The word is also sometimes used to describe young cattle and pigs, but "weaner" is more common in the United States.
Usage examples of "weanling".
He had bought him as a weanling, raised him, and last year had seen him win his championship.
In those early days, only the purchase of the weanling Hot Feet had been his decision alone.
Calling Teki her mate, she had left her weanling daughter in his care years ago, that Tek might be raised within the Vale.
She gazed at her weanling filly and foal traipsing ahead amid the swirling rush to butt at Lell with their blunt, barely sprouted horn-nubs.
It was not even yet a weanling and would wither and die without a mother.
Our good King Haakon, yet but a weanling, fled for his life in the arms of his mother, the threat of enemies at his heels, the promise of the cruel and perilous Dovre ahead.
He was so weak he could only hold his shette in front of him like a weanling cub.
And there were weanlings who frolicked and played, glorying in their newly acquired independence from their mothers and testing their strength and speed against one another.
The mares with suckling foals at their sides moved away at the sight of him, but the long-legged weanlings stood their ground, inquisitively watching his approach.
Tom must have taken all the weanlings and yearlings in his roundup last year.
Yearlings and weanlings were scattered, grazing and playing in small, separate groups.
In a little while it would be time to feed the broodmares and their colts, to handle the weanlings and yearlings, to do the many other endless tasks that went with the operation of a stock farm.
But those bands numbered only warriors and half-growns, no elders or weanlings or suckling mares.
The weanlings, those four and over, knew better than to make a sound once Assembly started.
In a little while it would be time to feed the broodmares and then- colts, to handle the weanlings and yearlings, to do the many other endless tasks that went with the operation of a stock farm.