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nursling

Noun
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A child or creature that is nourished and cared for by another, often used affectionately; in poetry, it evokes tenderness, dependency, and the vulnerability of the young or nurtured.

Detailed Definition
This is a literary word for something that is fed, raised, or fostered by a parent or source. Shelley uses it to present the cloud as a child of Earth, Water, and Sky.
Example
Example in poetry:
“And the nursling of the Sky” calls a young being a child nourished by a larger power; “The lamb, spring’s nursling, shook rain from its fleece” uses the noun tenderly; Shelley’s skyward imagery often treats birds and clouds as nature’s nurslings; “A nursling of the city, he learned traffic before birdsong” modernizes the metaphor.
Additional Notes
The quoted line uses 'nursling,' a literary word that is uncommon in modern everyday English.; Found in the poem, The Cloud by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Also Known As
nurtured one tender charge cherished child
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