Welldoer - Werre

Prev Next
[ Webster]

Welldoer (?), n. One who does well; one who does good to another; a benefactor.
[ Webster]

Welldoing, n. A doing well; right performance of duties. Also used adjectively.
[ Webster]

Welldrain (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Welldrained (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Well-draining.] To drain, as land; by means of wells, or pits, which receive the water, and from which it is discharged by machinery.
[ Webster]

Wellfare (?), n. See . [Obs.]
[ Webster]

Well-favored (?), a. Handsome; wellformed; beautiful; pleasing to the eye.
[ Webster]

Rachel was beautiful and well-favored. Gen. xxix. 17.
[ Webster]

Wellhead (?), n. A source, spring, or fountain.
[ Webster]

At the wellhead the purest streams arise. Spenser.
[ Webster]

Our public-school and university life is a great wellhead of new and irresponsible words. Earle.
[ Webster]

Wellhole (?), n.
[ Webster]

1. (Arch.) (a) The open space in a floor, to accommodate a staircase. (b) The open space left beyond the ends of the steps of a staircase.
[ Webster]

2. A cavity which receives a counterbalancing weight in certain mechanical contrivances, and is adapted also for other purposes. W. M. Buchanan.
[ Webster]

Well-informed (?), a. Correctly informed; provided with information; well furnished with authentic knowledge; intelligent.
[ Webster]

Wellington boot. [After the Duke of Wellington.] A riding boot for men, the front of which came above the knee; also, a similar shorter boot worn under the trousers.
[Webster Suppl.]

Wellingtonia (?), n. [NL. So named after the Duke of Wellington.] (Bot.) A name given to the “big trees” (Sequoia gigantea) of California, and still used in England. See .
[ Webster]

Wellingtons (?), n. pl. [After the Duke of Wellington.] A kind of long boots for men.
[ Webster]

Well-intentioned (?), a. Having upright intentions or honorable purposes.
[ Webster]

Dutchmen who had sold themselves to France, as the wellintentioned party. Macaulay.
[ Webster]

Well-known (?), a. Fully known; generally known or acknowledged.
[ Webster]

A church well known with a well-known rite. M. Arnold.
[ Webster]

Well-liking (?), a. Being in good condition. [Obs. or Archaic]
[ Webster]

They also shall bring forth more fruit in their age, and shall be fat and well-liking. Bk. of Com. Prayer (Ps. xcii.).
[ Webster]

Well-mannered (?), a. Polite; well-bred; complaisant; courteous. Dryden.
[ Webster]

Well-meaner (?), n. One whose intention is good. “Well-meaners think no harm.” Dryden.
[ Webster]

Well-meaning, a. Having a good intention.
[ Webster]

Well-natured (?), a. Good-natured; kind.
[ Webster]

Well-natured, temperate, and wise. Denham.
[ Webster]

Well-nigh (?), adv. Almost; nearly. Chaucer.
[ Webster]

Well-plighted (?), a. Being well folded. [Obs.] “Her well-plighted frock.” Spenser.
[ Webster]

Well-read (?), a. Of extensive reading; deeply versed; -- often followed by in.
[ Webster]

Well-seen (?), a. Having seen much; hence, accomplished; experienced. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.
[ Webster]

Well-seen in arms and proved in many a fight. Spenser.
[ Webster]

Well-set (?), a.
[ Webster]

1. Properly or firmly set.
[ Webster]

2. Well put together; having symmetry of parts.
[ Webster]

Well-sped (?), a. Having good success.
[ Webster]

Well-spoken (?), a. [Well + speak.]
[ Webster]

1. Speaking well; speaking with fitness or grace; speaking kindly. “A knight well-spoken.” Shak.
[ Webster]

2. Spoken with propriety; as, well-spoken words.
[ Webster]

Wellspring (?), n. A fountain; a spring; a source of continual supply.
[ Webster]

Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it; but the instruction of fools is folly. Prov. xvi. 22.
[ Webster]

Well-willer (?), n. One who wishes well, or means kindly. [R.] “A well-willer of yours.” Brydges.
[ Webster]

Well-wish (?), n. A wish of happiness. “A well-wish for his friends.” Addison.
[ Webster]

Wellwisher (?), n. One who wishes another well; one who is benevolently or friendlily inclined.
[ Webster]

We'll (?). Contraction for we will or we shall. “We'll follow them.” Shak.
[ Webster]

Wels (?), n. [G.] (Zoöl.) The sheatfish; -- called also waller.
[ Webster]

Welsbach (?), a. Of or pertaining to Auer von Welsbach or the incandescent gas burner invented by him. -- Coloq. Welsbach burner , a burner in which the combustion of a mixture of air and gas or vapor is employed to heat to incandescence a mantle composed of thoria and ceria. The mantle is made by soaking a “stocking” in a solution of nitrates of thorium and cerium (approx. 99:1), drying, and, for use, igniting to burn the thread and convert the nitrates into oxides, which remain as a fragile ash. The light far exceeds that obtained from the same amount of gas with the ordinary fishtail burner, but has a slight greenish hue.
[Webster Suppl.]

Welsh (?), a. [AS. wælisc, welisc, from wealh a stranger, foreigner, not of Saxon origin, a Welshman, a Celt, Gael; akin to OHG. walh, whence G. wälsch or welsch, Celtic, Welsh, Italian, French, Foreign, strange, OHG. walhisc; from the name of a Celtic tribe. See .] Of or pertaining to Wales, or its inhabitants. [Sometimes written also Welch.]
[ Webster]

Coloq. Welsh flannel , a fine kind of flannel made from the fleece of the flocks of the Welsh mountains, and largely manufactured by hand. -- Coloq. Welsh glaive , or Coloq. Welsh hook , a weapon of war used in former times by the Welsh, commonly regarded as a kind of poleax. Fairholt. Craig. -- Coloq. Welsh mortgage (O. Eng. Law), a species of mortgage, being a conveyance of an estate, redeemable at any time on payment of the principal, with an understanding that the profits in the mean time shall be received by the mortgagee without account, in satisfaction of interest. Burrill. -- Coloq. Welsh mutton , a choice and delicate kind of mutton obtained from a breed of small sheep in Wales. -- Coloq. Welsh onion (Bot.), a kind of onion (Allium fistulosum) having hollow inflated stalks and leaves, but scarcely any bulb, a native of Siberia. It is said to have been introduced from Germany, and is supposed to have derived its name from the German term wälsch foreign. -- Coloq. Welsh parsley , hemp, or halters made from hemp. [Obs. & Jocular] J. Fletcher. -- Coloq. Welsh rabbit . See under .
[ Webster]

Welsh, n.
[ Webster]

1. The language of Wales, or of the Welsh people.
[ Webster]

2. pl. The natives or inhabitants of Wales.
[ Webster]

☞ The Welsh call themselves Cymry, in the plural, and a Welshman Cymro, and their country Cymru, of which the adjective is Cymreig, and the name of their language Cymraeg. They are a branch of the Celtic family, and a relic of the earliest known population of England, driven into the mountains of Wales by the Anglo-Saxon invaders.
[ Webster]

Welsh (?), v. t. & i. (a) To cheat by avoiding payment of bets; -- said esp. of an absconding bookmaker at a race track. [Slang] (b) To avoid dishonorably the fulfillment of a pecuniary obligation. [Slang]
[Webster Suppl.]

Welsher (?), n. One who cheats at a horse race; one who bets, without a chance of being able to pay; one who receives money to back certain horses and absconds with it. [Written also welcher.] [Slang, Eng.]
[ Webster]

Welshman (?), n.; pl. Welshmen (�).
[ Webster]

1. A native or inhabitant of Wales; one of the Welsh.
[ Webster]

2. (Zoöl.) (a) A squirrel fish. (b) The large-mouthed black bass. See . [Southern U. S.]
[ Webster]

Welsh rarebit (?), n. same as Welsh rabbit.
[PJC]

Welsome (?), a. Prosperous; well. [Obs.] Wyclif. -- Welsomely, adv. Wyclif.
[ Webster]

welt (wĕlt), n. [OE. welte, probably fr. W. gwald a hem, a welt, gwaldu to welt or to hem.]
[ Webster]

1. That which, being sewed or otherwise fastened to an edge or border, serves to guard, strengthen, or adorn it; as: (a) A small cord covered with cloth and sewed on a seam or border to strengthen it; an edge of cloth folded on itself, usually over a cord, and sewed down. (b) A hem, border, or fringe. [Obs.] (c) In shoemaking, a narrow strip of leather around a shoe, between the upper leather and sole. (d) In steam boilers and sheet-iron work, a strip riveted upon the edges of plates that form a butt joint. (e) In carpentry, a strip of wood fastened over a flush seam or joint, or an angle, to strengthen it. (f) In machine-made stockings, a strip, or flap, of which the heel is formed.
[ Webster]

2. (Her.) A narrow border, as of an ordinary, but not extending around the ends.
[ Webster]

3. A raised ridge on the surface of the skin, produced by a blow, as from a stick or whip; a wale; a weal; as, to raise welts on the back with a whip.
Syn. -- wale; weal; wheal.
[PJC]

4. A blow that produces a welt{3}.
[PJC]

Coloq. Welt joint , a joint, as of plates, made with a welt, instead of by overlapping the edges. See , n., 1 (d).
[ Webster]

Welt, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Welted; p. pr. & vb. n. Welting.] To furnish with a welt; to sew or fasten a welt on; as, to welt a boot or a shoe; to welt a sleeve.
[ Webster]

Welt, v. t. To wilt. [R.]
[ Webster]

Weltanschauung (?), n.; pl. Weltanschauungen (#). [G.] Lit., world view; a conception of the course of events in, and of the purpose of, the world as a whole, forming a philosophical view or apprehension of the universe; the general idea embodied in a cosmology.
[Webster Suppl.]

Welte (?), obs. imp. of , to wield. Chaucer.
[ Webster]

Welter (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Weltered (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Weltering.] [Freq. of OE. walten to roll over, AS. wealtan; akin to LG. weltern, G. walzen to roll, to waltz, sich wälzen to welter, OHG. walzan to roll, Icel. velta, Dan. vælte, Sw. vältra, välta; cf. Goth. waltjan; probably akin to E. wallow, well, v. i. √146. See , v. i., and cf. .]
[ Webster]

1. To roll, as the body of an animal; to tumble about, especially in anything foul or defiling; to wallow.
[ Webster]

When we welter in pleasures and idleness, then we eat and drink with drunkards. Latimer.
[ Webster]

These wizards welter in wealth's waves. Spenser.
[ Webster]

He must not float upon his watery bier
Unwept, and welter to the parching wind,
Without the meed of some melodious tear. Milton.
[ Webster]

The priests at the altar . . . weltering in their blood. Landor.
[ Webster]

2. To rise and fall, as waves; to tumble over, as billows. “The weltering waves.” Milton.
[ Webster]

Waves that, hardly weltering, die away. Wordsworth.
[ Webster]

Through this blindly weltering sea. Trench.
[ Webster]

Welter, v. t. [Cf. , v. i.] To wither; to wilt. [R.]
[ Webster]

Weltered hearts and blighted . . . memories. I. Taylor.
[ Webster]

Welter, a. (Horse Racing) Of, pertaining to, or designating, the most heavily weighted race in a meeting; as, a welter race; the welter stakes.
[ Webster]

Welter, n.
[ Webster]

1. That in which any person or thing welters, or wallows; filth; mire; slough.
[ Webster]

The foul welter of our so-called religious or other controversies. Carlyle.
[ Webster]

2. A rising or falling, as of waves; as, the welter of the billows; the welter of a tempest.
[ Webster]

Welterweight (?), n. 1. (Horse Racing) A weight of 28 pounds (one of 40 pounds is called a heavy welterweight) sometimes imposed in addition to weight for age, chiefly in steeplechases and hurdle races.
[Webster Suppl.]

2. A boxer or wrestler whose weight is intermediate between that of a lightweight and that of a middleweight.
[Webster Suppl.]

Weltschmertz (vĕltshmĕrts), n. [G., fr. welt world + schmertz pain. See ; , v. i.] Sorrow or sadness over the present or future evils or woes of the world in general; sentimental pessimism.
[Webster Suppl.]

Welwitschia (?), n. [NL. So named after the discoverer, Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch.] (Bot.) An African plant (Welwitschia mirabilis) belonging to the order Gnetaceæ. It consists of a short, woody, topshaped stem, and never more than two leaves, which are the cotyledons enormously developed, and at length split into diverging segments.
[ Webster]

Wem (?), n. [Cf. .] The abdomen; the uterus; the womb. [Obs.]
[ Webster]

Wem, n. [AS. wam, wamm.] Spot; blemish; harm; hurt. [Obs.] Wyclif.
[ Webster]

Withouten wem of you, through foul and fair. Chaucer.
[ Webster]

Wem, v. t. [AS. wemman.] To stain; to blemish; to harm; to corrupt. [Obs.]
[ Webster]

Wemless, a. Having no wem, or blemish; spotless. [Obs.] “Virgin wemless.” Chaucer.
[ Webster]

Wen (wĕn), n. [AS. wenn; akin to D. wen, LG. wenne.] (Med.) An indolent, encysted tumor of the skin; especially, a sebaceous cyst.
[ Webster]

Wench (wĕnch), n. [OE. wenche, for older wenchel a child, originally, weak, tottering; cf. AS. wencle a maid, a daughter, wencel a pupil, orphan, wincel, winclu, children, offspring, wencel weak, wancol unstable, OHG. wanchol; perhaps akin to E. wink. See .]
[ Webster]

1. A young woman; a girl; a maiden. Shak.
[ Webster]

Lord and lady, groom and wench. Chaucer.
[ Webster]

That they may send again
My most sweet wench, and gifts to boot. Chapman.
[ Webster]

He was received by the daughter of the house, a pretty, buxom, blue-eyed little wench. W. Black.
[ Webster]

2. A low, vicious young woman; a drab; a strumpet.
[ Webster]

She shall be called his wench or his leman. Chaucer.
[ Webster]

It is not a digression to talk of bawds in a discourse upon wenches. Spectator.
[ Webster]

3. A colored woman; a negress. [Archaic, U. S.]
[ Webster]

Wench (wĕnch), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Wenched (wĕncht); p. pr. & vb. n. Wenching.] To frequent the company of wenches, or women of ill fame.
[ Webster]

Wencher (wĕnchẽr), n. One who wenches; a lewd man.
[ Webster]

Wenchless, a. Being without a wench. Shak. “Mr. Clinton, wenchless of late, has sublimated with public apologies.”
[ Webster +PJC]

Wend (wĕnd), obs. p. p. of . Chaucer.
[ Webster]

Wend, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Wended, Obs. Went; p. pr. & vb. n. Wending.] [AS. wendan to turn, to go, caus. of windan to wind; akin to OS. wendian, OFries. wenda, D. wenden to turn, G. wenden, Icel. venda, Sw. vända, Dan. vende, Goth. wandjan. See to turn, and cf. .]
[ Webster]

1. To go; to pass; to betake one's self. “To Canterbury they wend.” Chaucer.
[ Webster]

To Athens shall the lovers wend. Shak.
[ Webster]

2. To turn round. [Obs.] Sir W. Raleigh.
[ Webster]

Wend, v. t. To direct; to betake; -- used chiefly in the phrase to wend one's way. Also used reflexively. “Great voyages to wend.” Surrey.
[ Webster]

Wend, n. (O. Eng. Law) A large extent of ground; a perambulation; a circuit. [Obs.] Burrill.
[ Webster]

Wende (?), obs. imp. of . Chaucer.
[ Webster]

{ Wendic (?), Wendish (?), } a. Of or pertaining the Wends, or their language.
[ Webster]

Wendic (?), n. The language of the Wends.
[ Webster]

Wends (?), n. pl.; sing. Wend. (Ethnol.) A Slavic tribe which once occupied the northern and eastern parts of Germany, of which a small remnant exists.
[ Webster]

Wene (?), v. i. To ween. [Obs.] Chaucer.
[ Webster]

Wên-li (?), n. [Chin. wên li.] The higher literary idiom of Chinese, that of the canonical books and of all composition pretending to literary standing. It employs a classical or academic diction, and a more condensed and sententious style than Mandarin, and differs also in the doubling and arrangement of words.
[Webster Suppl.]

Wenlock group (?), (Geol.) The middle subdivision of the Upper Silurian in Great Britain; -- so named from the typical locality in Shropshire.
[ Webster]

Wennel (?), n. See . [Obs.] Tusser.
[ Webster]

{ Wennish (?), Wenny (?) }, a. [From .] Having the nature of a wen; resembling a wen; as, a wennish excrescence.
[ Webster]

Wenona (?), n. (Zoöl.) A sand snake (Charina plumbea) of Western North America, of the family Erycidæ.
[ Webster]

Went (?), imp. & p. p. of ; -- now obsolete except as the imperfect of go, with which it has no etymological connection. See .
[ Webster]

To the church both be they went. Chaucer.
[ Webster]

Went, n. Course; way; path; journey; direction. [Obs.] “At a turning of a wente.” Chaucer.
[ Webster]

But here my weary team, nigh overspent,
Shall breathe itself awhile after so long a went. Spenser.
[ Webster]

He knew the diverse went of mortal ways. Spenser.
[ Webster]

Wentletrap (?), n. [D. wenteltrap a winding staircase; cf. G. wendeltreppe.] [Obs.] Any one of numerous species of elegant, usually white, marine shells of the genus Scalaria, especially Scalaria pretiosa, which was formerly highly valued; -- called also staircase shell. See .
[ Webster]

Wep (?), obs. imp. of .
[ Webster]

Wepen (?), n. Weapon. [Obs.]
[ Webster]

Wept (?), imp. & p. p. of .
[ Webster]

Werche (?), v. t. & i. To work. [Obs.] Chaucer.
[ Webster]

Were (?), v. t. & i. To wear. See 3d . [Obs.] Chaucer.
[ Webster]

Were, n. A weir. See . [Obs.] Chaucer. Sir P. Sidney.
[ Webster]

Were, v. t. [AS. werian.] To guard; to protect. [Obs.] Chaucer.
[ Webster]

Were (wẽr; 277). [AS. wǣre (thou) wast, wǣron (we, you, they) were, wǣre imp. subj. See .] The imperfect indicative plural, and imperfect subjunctive singular and plural, of the verb be. See .
[ Webster]

Were (wēr), n. [AS. wer; akin to OS. & OHG. wer, Goth. waír, L. vir, Skr. vīra. Cf. , and .]
[ Webster]

1. A man. [Obs.]
[ Webster]

2. A fine for slaying a man; the money value set upon a man's life; weregild. [Obs.]
[ Webster]

Every man was valued at a certain sum, which was called his were. Bosworth.
[ Webster]

Weregild (?), n. [AS. wergild; wer a man, value set on a man's life + gild payment of money; akin to G. wehrgeld. √285. See a man, and , n.] (O. Eng. Law) The price of a man's head; a compensation paid of a man killed, partly to the king for the loss of a subject, partly to the lord of a vassal, and partly to the next of kin. It was paid by the murderer. [Written also weregeld, weregelt, etc.] Blackstone.
[ Webster]

Werewolf (?), n.; pl. Werewolves (#). [AS. werwulf; wer a man + wulf a wolf; cf. G. wärwolf, währwolf, wehrwolf, a werewolf, MHG. werwolf. √285. See a man, and , and cf. , .] A person transformed into a wolf in form and appetite, either temporarily or permanently, whether by supernatural influences, by witchcraft, or voluntarily; a lycanthrope. Belief in werewolves, formerly general, is not now extinct.
[ Webster]

The werwolf went about his prey. William of Palerne.
[ Webster]

The brutes that wear our form and face,
The werewolves of the human race. Longfellow.
[ Webster]

{Werk (?), n., Werke }, v. See . [Obs.]
[ Webster]

Wern (?), v. t. [See 1st .] To refuse. [Obs.]
[ Webster]

He is too great a niggard that will wern
A man to light a candle at his lantern. Chaucer.
[ Webster]

Wernerian (?), a. Of or pertaining to A. G. Werner, The German mineralogist and geologist, who classified minerals according to their external characters, and advocated the theory that the strata of the earth's crust were formed by depositions from water; designating, or according to, Werner's system.
[ Webster]

Wernerite (?), n. [See .] (Min.) The common grayish or white variety of soapolite.
[ Webster]

Weroole (?), n. (Zoöl.) An Australian lorikeet (Ptilosclera versicolor) noted for the variety of its colors; -- called also varied lorikeet.
[ Webster]

Werre (?), n. War. [Obs.] Chaucer.
[ Webster]

Prev Next

Concept Explore Home

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z