“How could this stripling have learned what he had taken such pains to conceal?”

“Surely, though, there could be no such problem with filming a stripling of a novel, published a mere five years ago?”

“The police officer, a mere stripling of 35, was called to a nursing home where the woman was visiting a friend.”

“Fast forward almost 21 years, to last Monday, when the Celtic under-21 team took on Kilmarnock's striplings.”

“They are also used to read both CDs and the bar-codes without which it now seems impossible to make any purchase in a high-street shop. The winners of the chemistry prize are, by comparison, mere striplings.”

“My recent orchestral wanderings have included sampling the playing of not only the wizened pros of the New York Phil but some younger striplings, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, at Avery Fisher Hall.”