YOUNGSTER

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A young person of either sex

Example:

'tiddler' is a British term for youngster

Synonyms:

child; fry; kid; minor; nestling; nipper; shaver; small fry; tiddler; tike; tyke; youngster

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("youngster" is a kind of...):

juvenile; juvenile person (a young person, not fully developed)

Meronyms (parts of "youngster"):

child's body (the body of a human child)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "youngster"):

street child; waif (a homeless child especially one forsaken or orphaned)

urchin (poor and often mischievous city child)

bambino; toddler; tot; yearling (a young child)

sprog (a child)

silly (a word used for misbehaving children)

kindergartener; kindergartner; preschooler (a child who attends a preschool or kindergarten)

poster child (a child afflicted by some disease or deformity whose picture is used on posters to raise money for charitable purposes)

picaninny; piccaninny; pickaninny ((ethnic slur) offensive term for a Black child)

peanut (a young child who is small for his age)

orphan (a child who has lost both parents)

kiddie; kiddy (informal term for a young child)

imp; monkey; rapscallion; rascal; scalawag; scallywag; scamp (one who is playfully mischievous)

foster-child; foster child; fosterling (a child who is raised by foster parents)

child prodigy; infant prodigy; wonder child (a prodigy whose talents are recognized at an early age)

changeling (a child secretly exchanged for another in infancy)

buster (a robust child)

bairn (a child: son or daughter)

Credits

Context examples:

It is unlikely that a youngster like Adair would at once make a hideous scandal by exposing a well-known man so much older than himself.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Hal was a youngster of nineteen or twenty, with a big Colt’s revolver and a hunting-knife strapped about him on a belt that fairly bristled with cartridges.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

As the youngster of the party, not merely in years, but in experience, character, knowledge, and all that goes to make a man, I had been overshadowed from the first.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Researchers say the love youngsters have for wildlife may be clouding the public's mind about how endangered those creatures are.

(Study: Popularity of Wildlife Can Harm Public's Perception, VOA)

Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

A youngster who, but a few years ago, believed in Cornelius Agrippa as firmly as in the gospel, has now set himself at the head of the university; and if he is not soon pulled down, we shall all be out of countenance.—Ay, ay, continued he, observing my face expressive of suffering, M. Frankenstein is modest; an excellent quality in a young man.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The old captain spoke of the promotions by Parliamentary interest which had put many a youngster into the captain’s cabin when he should have been in the gun-room.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He put a quarter in the youngster's hand and held him in his arms a moment, soothing his sobs.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He didn’t mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)