yetling

Etymology

From Middle English yetling, yetlyng, ȝetlynge, equivalent to yet (“to pour”) + -ling.

noun

1. (UK, chiefly Scotland, obsolete) Cast iron.
   Scots ploughs, very neatly made, and covered with yetling, are the only kind used in this parish. 1794, John Sinclair, The Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn Up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes, page 178
   Rollers are of different kinds, stone, yetling, wood. Each of these has its advantages. 1815, Henry Home (Lord Kames), The Gentleman Farmer: Being an Attempt to Improve Agriculture by Subjecting it to the Test of Rational Principles, page 54
   Having afterwards resolved upon renewing the armament, they instructed the Dean of Guild " to sell the auld pieces callit heidsticks being in the steeple to the gritest avail, and wair and bestow the money gotten therefor upon sufficient yetling ordinance to the common use of the burgh." 1884, The History of Old Dundee, Narrated Out of the Town Council Register, pages 212–213
   A caller burn runs wimpling clear, Out o'er its rocky bed ; Where sits the rural yetling chair, For youth and hoary head, To rest themselves beside the stream And hear its murmuring. 1896, John Geddie, The Water of Leith from Source to Sea, page 32
2. (UK, chiefly Scotland, by extension) A small cauldron, or rounded pot, typically, but not always, made of cast iron.
   Still, it occurs to me that Yetlington is more probably indebted to its name from being the spot where " yetlings" were made. To this day the metal pot used by the muggers is known by that appellation in its immediate neighhourhood, and bears a striking resemblance to a sacred utensil used during the sacrifices of the Romans. 1842, Local Collections; Or, Records of Remarkable Events, Connected with the Borough of Gateshead, page 50
   Mother had lifted the yetling off the fire, and left it there," pointing to the middle of the room ; " and she comes running along and tumbles in. 1859, Jane Anne Winscom, Onward: or, The mountain Clamberers : a Tale of Progress, page 43
   A bronze yetling, or tripod caldron, with an angular handle at each side. 1880, John Collingwood Bruce, A Descriptive Catalogue of Antiquities, Chiefly British, at Alnwick Castle
   Baking in the turf-burning areas of the North Yorkshire Moors was also undertaken in a yetling, a cylindrical cast-iron vessel perhaps a foot in diameter and five inches in height which hung over the fire from a reckon-hook. 1987, Peter C. D. Brears, Traditional Food in Yorkshire, page 79
3. (UK, chiefly Scotland) A small cast iron ball.
   A more recent conjecture traces a connection between it and the game still, or not long ago, played at New Year with yetlings or balls of cast iron on the sands near the Skilleys of Wemyss, in which, as in the North German Klotschiessen, the player who drives the ball to the goal in the fewest number of strokes wins. 1896, The County Histories of Scotland - Volume 4, page 231