Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - Letter W - Page 20

Welter (v. i.) To roll, as the body of an animal; to tumble about, especially in anything foul or defiling; to wallow.

When we welter in pleasures and idleness, then we eat and drink with drunkards. -- Latimer.

These wizards welter in wealth's waves. -- Spenser.

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

The priests at the altar . . . weltering in their blood. -- Landor.

Welter (v. i.) To rise and fall, as waves; to tumble over, as billows. "The weltering waves." -- Milton.

Waves that, hardly weltering, die away. -- Wordsworth.

Through this blindly weltering sea. -- Trench.

Welter (v. t.) To wither; to wilt. [R.]

Weltered hearts and blighted . . . memories. -- I. Taylor.

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

Welter (n.) That in which any person or thing welters, or wallows; filth; mire; slough.

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

Welter (n.) A rising or falling, as of waves; as, the welter of the billows; the welter of a tempest.

Welter (n.) A confused multitude of things [syn: clutter, jumble, muddle, fuddle, mare's nest, welter, smother].

Welter (v.) Toss, roll, or rise and fall in an uncontrolled way; "The shipwrecked survivors weltered in the sea for hours".

Welter (v.) Roll around, "pigs were wallowing in the mud" [syn: wallow, welter].

Welter (v.) Be immersed in; "welter in work".

Welwitschia (n.) (Bot.) An African plant ({Welwitschia mirabilis) belonging to the order Gnetaceae. 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.

Welwitschia (n.) Curious plant of arid regions of southwestern Africa having a yard-high and yard-wide trunk like a turnip with a deep taproot and two large persistent woody straplike leaves growing from the base; living relic of a flora long disappeared; some may be 700-5000 years old [syn: welwitschia, Welwitschia mirabilis].

Wem (n.) The abdomen; the uterus; the womb. [Obs.]

Wem (n.) Spot; blemish; harm; hurt. [Obs.] -- Wyclif.

Withouten wem of you, through foul and fair. -- Chaucer.

Wem (v. t.) To stain; to blemish; to harm; to corrupt. [Obs.]

Wemless (a.) Having no wem, or blemish; spotless. [Obs.] "Virgin wemless." -- Chaucer.

Wen (n.) (Med.) An indolent, encysted tumor of the skin; especially, a sebaceous cyst.

Wyn, Wynn, (n.) Also Wen, One of the runes (?) adopted into the Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, alphabet. It had the value of modern English w, and was replaced from about a. d. 1280 at first by uu, later by w.

Wen (n.) A common cyst of the skin; filled with fatty matter (sebum) that is secreted by a sebaceous gland that has been blocked [syn: sebaceous cyst, pilar cyst, wen, steatocystoma].

Wench (n.) A young woman; a girl; a maiden. -- Shak.

Lord and lady, groom and wench. -- Chaucer.

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

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

Wench (n.) A low, vicious young woman; a drab; a strumpet.

She shall be called his wench or his leman. -- Chaucer.

It is not a digression to talk of bawds in a discourse upon wenches. -- Spectator.

Wench (n.) A colored woman; a negress. [Archaic, U. S.]

Wench (n.) Informal terms for a (young) woman [syn: dame, doll, wench, skirt, chick, bird].

Wench (v.) Frequent prostitutes.

Wenched (imp. & p. p.) of Wench.

Wenching (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Wench.

Wench (v. i.) To frequent the company of wenches, or women of ill fame.

Wencher (n.) One who wenches; a lewd man.

Wenchless (a.) Being without a wench.

Wend () p. p. of Wene.

Wended (imp. & p. p.) of Wend.

Went () of Wend.

Wending (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Wend.

Wend (v. i.) To go; to pass; to betake one's self. "To Canterbury they wend." -- Chaucer.

To Athens shall the lovers wend. -- Shak.

Wend (v. i.) To turn round. [Obs.] -- Sir W. Raleigh.

Wend (v. t.) To direct; to betake; -- used chiefly in the phrase to wend one's way. Also used reflexively.

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

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.

Wend (v.) Direct one's course or way; "wend your way through the crowds".

Wende () imp. of Wene.

Wendic (a.) Alt. of Wendish.

Wendish (a.) Of or pertaining the Wends, or their language.

Wendic (n.) The language of the Wends.

Wends (n. pl.) A Slavic tribe which once occupied the northern and eastern parts of Germany, of which a small remnant exists.

Wene (v. i.) To ween.

Wenlock group () The middle subdivision of the Upper Silurian in Great Britain; -- so named from the typical locality in Shropshire.

Wennel (n.) See Weanel.

Wennish (a.) Alt. of Wenny.

Wenny (a.) Having the nature of a wen; resembling a wen; as, a wennish excrescence.

Wenona (n.) A sand snake (Charina plumbea) of Western North America, of the family Erycidae.

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

Went (n.) Course; way; path; journey; direction.

Scalaria (n.) (Zool.) Any one of numerous species of marine gastropods of the genus {Scalaria}, or family {Scalaridae}, having elongated spiral turreted shells, with rounded whorls, usually crossed by ribs or varices. The color is generally white or pale. Called also {ladder shell}, and {wentletrap}. See {Ptenoglossa}, and {Wentletrap}.

Wentletrap (n.) [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 {Scalaria}.

Wep () imp. of Weep.

Wepen (n.) Weapon.

Wept () imp. & p. p. of Weep.

Werche (v. t. & i.) To work.

Were (vbl.) be的過去式

Were (v. t. & i.) To wear. See 3d {Wear}. [Obs.] -- Chaucer.

Were (n.) A weir. See {Weir}. [Obs.] -- Chaucer. Sir P. Sidney.

Were (v. t.) To guard; to protect. [Obs.] -- Chaucer.

Were () The imperfect indicative plural, and imperfect subjunctive singular and plural, of the verb be. See {Be}.

Were (n.) A man. [Obs.]

Were (n.) A fine for slaying a man; the money value set upon a man's life; weregild. [Obs.]

Every man was valued at a certain sum, which was called his were. -- Bosworth.

Were (n.) The name of a fine among the Saxons imposed upon a murderer.

Were (n.) The life of every man, not excepting that of the king himself, was estimated at a certain price, which was called the were, or vestimatio capitis. The amount varied according to the dignity of the person murdered. The price of wounds was also varied according to the nature of the wound, or the member injured.

Weregild (n.) 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.

Werewolves (n. pl. ) of Werewolf

Werewolf (n.) (神話中)變成狼的人;狼人;殘忍狡詐的人 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.

The werwolf went about his prey. -- William of Palerne.

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

Werewolf (n.) A monster able to change appearance from human to wolf and back again [syn: {werewolf}, {wolfman}, {lycanthrope}, {loup-garou}]

Werewolf (n.) A wolf that was once, or is sometimes, a man.  All werewolves are of evil disposition, having assumed a bestial form to gratify a beastial appetite, but some, transformed by sorcery, are as humane and is consistent with an acquired taste for human flesh.

Some Bavarian peasants having caught a wolf one evening, tied it to a post by the tail and went to bed.  The next morning nothing was there!  Greatly perplexed, they consulted the local priest, who told them that their captive was undoubtedly a werewolf and had resumed its human for during the night.  "The next time that you take a wolf," the good man said, "see that you chain it by the leg, and in the morning you will find a Lutheran."

Werk (v.) Alt. of {Werke}

Werke (v.) See {Work}. [Obs.]

Wern (v. t.) To refuse. [Obs.]

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

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.

Wernerite (n.) (Min.) The common grayish or white variety of soapolite.

Weroole (n.) (Zool.) An Australian lorikeet ({Ptilosclera versicolor) noted for the variety of its colors; -- called also {varied lorikeet}.

Werre (n.) War. [Obs.] -- Chaucer.

Werrey (v. t.) To warray. [Obs.] -- Chaucer.

Compare: Verst

Verst (n.) A Russian measure of length containing 3,500 English feet. [Written also {werst}.]

Verst (n.) A Russian unit of length (1.067 km).

Werst (n.) See {Verst}.

Wert (n.) The second person singular, indicative and subjunctive moods, imperfect tense, of the verb be. It is formed from were, with the ending -t, after the analogy of wast. Now used only in solemn or poetic style.

Wert (n.) A wart. [Obs.] -- Chaucer.

Weryangle (n.) See {Wariangle}. [Obs.] -- Chaucer.

Wesand (n.) See {Weasand}. [Obs.]

Weasand (n.) The windpipe; -- called also, formerly, {wesil}. [Formerly, written also, {wesand}, and {wezand}.]

Cut his weasand with thy knife. -- Shak.

Wesh (imp.) Washed. -- Chaucer. [Obs.]

Wesil (n.) See {Weasand}. [Obs.]

Weasand (n.) The windpipe; -- called also, formerly, {wesil}. [Formerly, written also, {wesand}, and {wezand}.]

Cut his weasand with thy knife. -- Shak.

Wesleyan (a.) Of or pertaining to Wesley or Wesleyanism.

Wesleyan (n.) (Eccl.) One who adopts the principles of Wesleyanism; a Methodist.

Wesleyan (a.) Of or pertaining to or characteristic of the branch of Protestantism adhering to the views of Wesley; "Methodist theology" [syn: Methodist, Wesleyan].

Wesleyan (n.) A follower of Wesleyanism.

Wesleyanism (n.) (Eccl.) (基督教新教)衛斯理宗教教義 The system of doctrines and church polity inculcated by John Wesley (b. 1703; d. 1791), the founder of the religious sect called Methodist; Methodism. See {Methodist}, n., 2.

Wesleyanism (n.) Evangelical principles taught by John Wesley [syn: {Wesleyanism}, {Wesleyism}].

West (n.) The point in the heavens where the sun is seen to set at the equinox; or, the corresponding point on the earth; that one of the four cardinal points of the compass which is in a direction at right angles to that of north and south, and on the left hand of a person facing north; the point directly opposite to east.

West (n.) A country, or region of country, which, with regard to some other country or region, is situated in the direction toward the west.

West (n.) The Westen hemisphere, or the New World so called, it having been discovered by sailing westward from Europe; the Occident.

West (n.) Formerly, that part of the United States west of the Alleghany mountains; now, commonly, the whole region west of the Mississippi river; esp., that part which is north of the Indian Territory, New Mexico, etc. Usually with the definite article.

West (a.) Lying toward the west; situated at the west, or in a western direction from the point of observation or reckoning; proceeding toward the west, or coming from the west; as, a west course is one toward the west; an east and west line; a west wind blows from the west.

West (adv.) Westward.

West (v. i.) To pass to the west; to set, as the sun.

West (v. i.) To turn or move toward the west; to veer from the north or south toward the west.

Westering (a.) Passing to the west.

Westerly (a.) Of or pertaining to the west; toward the west; coming from the west; western.

Westerly (adv.) Toward the west; westward.

Western (a.) Of or pertaining to the west; situated in the west, or in the region nearly in the direction of west; being in that quarter where the sun sets; as, the western shore of France; the western ocean.

Western (a.) Moving toward the west; as, a ship makes a western course; coming from the west; as, a western breeze.

Westerner (n.) A native or inhabitant of the west.

Westernmost (a.) Situated the farthest towards the west; most western.

West India () Alt. of West Indian

West Indian () Belonging or relating to the West Indies.

West Indian () A native of, or a dweller in, the West Indies.

Westing (n.) The distance, reckoned toward the west, between the two meridians passing through the extremities of a course, or portion of a ship's path; the departure of a course which lies to the west of north.

Westling (n.) A westerner.

Westminster Assembly () See under Assembly.

Westmost (a.) Lying farthest to the west; westernmost.

Westward (adv.) Alt. of Westwards

Westwards (adv.) Toward the west; as, to ride or sail westward.

Westward (a.) Lying toward the west.

Westward (n.) The western region or countries; the west.

Westwardly (adv.) In a westward direction.

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