gangling

adjectiveC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Gangling means tall, thin and loose-limbed. A gangling youth, gangling and awkward, all gangling arms.

It belongs to adolescents above all, where the limbs have grown faster than the coordination. Gangly is the commoner form now and means exactly the same thing.

Definitions of gangling

1adjectiveganglingTall, thin and loose-limbed.C1
“A gangling teenager with long arms folded himself into the back seat of the car.”

gangling is a build.

Where it comes from

Perhaps from a dialect word gang, to walk, with cognates in Swedish.

Built from

gang · English — to go, to walk, to proceed

Perhaps from gangle, from the dialectal gang (“to go, to walk, to proceed”). Compare Swedish gänglig.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

← Vocabulary

gangling

Gangling means tall, thin and loose-limbed. A gangling youth, gangling and awkward, all gangling arms.

It belongs to adolescents above all, where the limbs have grown faster than the coordination. Gangly is the commoner form now and means exactly the same thing.

Definitions of gangling

1adjectiveganglingTall, thin and loose-limbed.C1
“A gangling teenager with long arms folded himself into the back seat of the car.”

gangling is a build.

Where it comes from

Perhaps from a dialect word gang, to walk, with cognates in Swedish.

Built from

gang · English — to go, to walk, to proceed

Perhaps from gangle, from the dialectal gang (“to go, to walk, to proceed”). Compare Swedish gänglig.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA