WEAK, adjective [G. The primary sense of the root is to yield, fail, give way, recede, or to be soft.]

1. Having little physical strength; feeble. Children are born weak; men are rendered weak by disease.

2. Infirm; not healthy; as a weak constitution.

3. Not able to bear a great weight; as a weak bridge; weak timber.

4. Not strong; not compact; easily broken; as a weak ship; a weak rope.

5. Not able to resist a violent attack; as a weak fortress.

6. Soft; pliant; not stiff.

7. Low; small; feeble; as a weak voice.

8. Feeble of mind; wanting spirit; wanting vigor of understanding; as a weak prince; a weak magistrate.

To think every thing disputable, si a proof of a weak mind and captious temper.

9. Not much impregnated with ingredients, or with things that excite action, or with stimulating and nourishing substances; as weak broth; weak tea; weak toddy; a weak solution; a weak decoction.

10. Not politically powerful; as a weak nation or state.

11. Not having force of authority or energy; as a weak government.

12. Not having moral force or power to convince; not well supported by truth or reason; as a weak argument.

13. Not well supported by argument; as weak reasoning.

14. Unfortified; accessible; impressible; as the weak side of a person.

15. Not having full conviction or confidence; as weak in faith.

16. weak land is land of a light thin soil. [I believe never used in New England.]

WEAK, verb transitive To make weak [Not used.]

WEAK, verb intransitive To become weak [Not used.]

WEAKEN, verb transitive

1. To lessen the strength of, or to deprive of strength; to debilitate; to enfeeble; as, to weaken the body; to weaken the mind; to weaken the hands of the magistrate; to weaken the force of an objection or an argument.

2. To reduce in strength or spirit; as, to weaken tea; to weaken any solution or decoction.

WEAKENED, participle passive Debilitated; enfeebled; reduced in strength.

WEAKENER, noun He or that which weakens.

WEAKENING, participle present tense Debilitating; enfeebling; reducing the strength or vigor of any thing.

WEAKLING, noun A feeble creature.

WEAKLY, adverb

1. Feebly; with little physical strength; faintly; not forcible; as a fortress weakly defended.

2. With want of efficacy.

Was plighted faith so weakly seald above?

3. With feebleness of mind or intellect; indiscretely; injuriously.

Beneath pretended justice weakly fall.

4. Timorously; with little courage or fortitude.

WEAKLY, adjective Not strong of constitution; infirm; as a weakly woman; a man of a weakly constitution.

WEAKNESS, noun

1. Want of physical strength; want of force or vigor; feebleness; as the weakness of a child; the weakness of an invalid; the weakness of a wall or bridge, or of thread or cordage.

2. Want of sprightliness.

Soft, without weakness; without glaring, gay.

3. Want of steadiness.

By such a review, we shall discern and strengthen our weaknesses.

4. Infirmity; unhealthiness; as weakness of constitution.

5. Want of moral force or effect upon the mind; as the weakness of evidence; the weakness of arguments.

6. Want of judgment; feebleness of mind; foolishness.

All wickedness is weakness

7. Defect; failing; fault; with a plural.

Many take pleasure in spreading abroad the weaknesses of an exalted character.

WEAKSIDE, noun [weak and side.] Foible; deficience; failing; infirmity.

WEAL, noun [G., Latin , to be strong, to avail, to prevail. The primary sense of weal is strength, soundness, from the sense of straining, stretching or advancing.]

1. A sound state of a person or thing; a state which is prosperous, or at least not unfortunate, not declining; prosperity; happiness.

As we love the weal of our souls and bodies.

The weal or wo in thee is placd.

So we say, the public weal the general weal the weal of the nation or state.

2. Republic; state; public interest. [But we now use commonwealth, in the sense of state.]

WEAL, noun The mark of a stripe. [See Wale.] Weald, wald, walt, wold, in Saxon and other Teutonic dialects, signifies a wood or forest. It is found in names, as in Walt-ham, wood-house; corruptly pronounced Waltham.

WEALSMAN, noun [weal and man.] A name given sneeringly to a politician.

WEALTH, noun

1. Prosperity; external happiness.

2. Riches; large possessions of money, goods or land; that abundance of worldly estate which exceeds the estate of the greater part of the community; affluence; opulence.

Each day new wealth without their care provides.

WEALTHILY, adverb Richly.

WEALTHINESS, noun State of being wealthy; richness.

WEALTHY, adjective Rich; having large possessions in lands, goods, money or securities, or larger than the generality of men; opulent; affluent. As wealth is a comparative thing, a man may be wealthy in one place, and not so in another. A man may be deemed wealthy in a village, who would not be so considered in London.

WEAN, verb transitive [G. See Wont.]

1. To accustom and reconcile, as a child or other young animal, to a want or deprivation of the breast.

And the child grew, and was weaned. Genesis 21:8.

2. To detach or alienate, as the affections, from any object of desire; to reconcile to the want or loss of any thing; as, to wean the heart from temporal enjoyments.

WEANED, participle passive Accustomed or reconciled to the want of the breast or other object of desire.

WEANEL, WEANLING, noun A child or other animal newly weaned.

WEANING, participle present tense Accustoming or reconciling, as a young child or other animal, to a want of the breast; reconciling to the want of any object of desire.

WEANEL, WEANLING noun A child or other animal newly weaned.

WEAPON, noun [G., Latin ]

1. Any instrument of offense; any thing used or designed to be used in destroying or annoying an enemy. The weapons of rude nations are clubs, stones and bows and arrows. Modern weapons of war are swords, muskets, pistols, cannon and the like.

2. An instrument for contest, or for combating enemies.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. 2 Corinthians 10:4.

3. An instrument of defense.

4. Weapons, in botany, arms; thorns, prickles, and stings, with which plants are furnished for defense; enumerated among the fulcres by Linne.

WEAPONED, adjective Wepnd. Armed; furnished with weapons or arms; equipped.

WEAPONLESS, adjective Unarmed; having no weapon.

WEAR, verb transitive preterit tense wore; participle passive worn.

1. To waste or impair by rubbing or attrition; to lessen or diminish by time, use or instruments. A current of water often wears a channel in limestone.

2. To carry appendant to the body, as clothes or weapons; as, to wear a coat or a robe; to wear a sword; to wear a crown.

On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore.

3. To have or exhibit an appearance; to bear; as, she wears a smile on her countenance.

4. To affect by degrees.

Trials wear us into a liking of what possible, in the first essay, displeased us.

To wear away, to consume; to impair, diminish or destroy by gradual attrition or decay.

To wear off, to diminish by attrition or slow decay.

To wear out,

1. To consume; to render useless by attrition or decay; as, to wear out a coat or a book.

2. To consume tediously; as, to wear out life in idle projects.

3. To harass; to tire.

He shall wear out the saints of the Most High. Daniel 7:25.

4. To waste the strength of; as an old amn worn out in the service of his country.

WEAR, verb intransitive

1. To be wasted; to be diminished by attrition, by use, or by time.

Thou wilt surely wear away. Exodus 18:18.

2. To be tediously spent.

Thus wore out night.

3. To be consumed by slow degrees. It is better to wear out, than to rust out.

To wear off, to pass away by degrees. The follies of youth wear off with age.

WEAR, noun

1. The act of wearing; diminution by friction; as the wear and tear of a garment.

2. The thing worn.

WEAR, noun [See Warren and Guard.]

1. A dam in a river to stop and raise the water, for conducting it to a mill, or for taking fish.

2. An instrument or kind of basket work for catching fish.

WEARABLE, adjective That can be worn.

WEARD, Sax. A warden, in names, denotes watchfulness or care, but it must not be confounded with ward, in toward.

WEARER, noun [from wear.]

1. One who wears or carries as appendant to the body; as the wearer of a cloke, a sword or a crown.

2. That which wastes or diminishes.

WEARINESS, noun [from weary.]

1. The state of being weary or tired; that lassitude or exhaustion of strength which is induced by labor; fatigue.

With weariness and wine oppresd.

2. Lassitude; uneasiness proceeding from continued waiting, disappointed expectation or exhausted patience, or from other cause.

WEARING, participle present tense

1. Bearing on or appendant to the person; diminishing by friction; consuming.

2. adjective Denoting what is worn; as wearing apparel.

WEARING, noun Clothes; garments.

WEARISH, adjective

1. Boggy; watery. [Not in use.]

2. Weak; washy. [Not in use.]

WEARISOME, adjective [from weary.] Causing weariness; tiresome; tedious; fatiguing; as a wearisome march; a wearisome days work.

WEARISOME nights are appointed unto me. Job 7:3.

WEARISOMELY, adverb Tediously; so as to cause weariness.

WEARISOMENESS, noun The quality of exhausting strength or patience; tiresomeness; tediousness; as the wearisomeness of toil, or of waiting long in anxious expectation.

WEARY, adjective

1. Having the strength much exhausted by toil or violent exertion; tired; fatigued. [It should be observed however that this word expresses less than tired, particularly when applied to a beast; as a tired horse. It is followed by of, before the cause of fatigue; as, to be weary of marching; to be weary of reaping; to be weary of study.]

2. Having the patience exhausted, or the mind yielding to discouragement. He was weary of asking for redress.

3. Causing weariness; tiresome; as a weary way; a weary life.

WEARY, verb transitive [from the adjective.]

1. To reduce or exhaust the physical strength of the body; to tire; to fatigue; as, to weary ones self with labor or traveling.

The people shall weary themselves for very vanity. Habakkuk 2:13.

2. To make impatient of continuance.

I stay too long by thee; I weary thee.

3. To harass by any thing irksome; as, to be wearied of waiting for the arrival of the post.

To weary out, to subdue or exhaust by fatigue.

WEASAND, WESAND, noun s as z. The windpipe or trachea; the canal through which air passes to and from the lungs.

WEASEL, WEESEL, noun s as z. A small animal of the genus Mustela, which lives under the roots of trees, or in other holes, and feeds on small birds, but particularly on mice. A weasel that frequents barns and corn-houses, frees them from rats and mice, and is sometimes deemed a very useful inmate.

WEATHER, noun Wether. [G., The primary sense of this word is air, wind or atmosphere; probably the Gr., whence ether.] Properly, the air; hence,

1. The state of the air or atmosphere with respect to heat or cold, wetness or dryness, calm or storm, clearness or cloudiness, and the like; as warm weather; cold weather; wet weather; dry weather; calm weather; tempestuous weather; fair weather; cloudy weather; hazy weather and the like.

2. Change of the state of the air.

3. Storm; tempest.

[These last significations are not now in use, unless by a poetic license.]

Stress of weather violent winds; force of tempests.

WEATHER, verb transitive wether.

1. To air; to expose to the air. [Rarely used.]

2. In seamens language, to sail to the windward of something else; as, to weather a cape; to weather another ship. As this is often difficult, hence,

3. To pass with difficulty.

To weather a point, to gain or accomplish it against opposition.

To weather out, to endure; to hold out to the end; as, to weather out a storm.

WEATHER is used with several words, either as an adjective, or as forming part of a compound word.

WEATHERED, participle passive Passed to the windward; passed with difficulty.

WEATHERING, participle present tense Passing or sailing to the windward; passing with difficulty.

WEATHERMOST, adjective [weather and most.] Being farthest to the windward.

WEAVE, verb transitive preterit tense wove; participle passive woven, wove. The regular form, weaved, is rarely or never used. [G., Gr.]

1. To unite threads of any kind in such a manner as to form cloth. This is done by crossing the threads by means of a shuttle. The modes of weaving, and the kinds of texture, are various. The threads first laid in length are called the warp; those which cross them in the direction of the breadth, are called the weft or woof.

2. To unite any thing flexible; as, to weave twigs.

3. To unite by intermixture or close connection; as a form of religion woven into the civil government.

4. To interpose; to insert.

This weaves itself perforce into my business.

WEAVE, verb intransitive To practice weaving; to work with a loom.

WEAVER, noun

1. One who weaves; one whose occupation is to weave.

2. The common name of the genus Ploceus, of several species, natives of Africa and the East Indies; so called because they construct curious and often pensile nests, by interweaving twigs and fibers.

WEAVING, participle present tense Forming cloth by intertexture of threads.

WEAVING, noun

1. The act or art of forming cloth in a loom, by the union or intertexture of threads.

2. The task or work to be done in making cloth.

WEB, noun [See Weave.]

1. Texture of threads; plexus; any thing woven. Penelope devised a web to deceive her wooers.

2. Locally, a piece of linen cloth.

3. A dusky film that forms over the eye and hinders the sight; suffusion.

4. Some part of a sword. Qu. Net-work of the handle or hilt.

5. In ship-building, the thin partition on the inside of the rim, and between the spokes of a sheave.

6. In ornithology, the membrane which unites the toes of many water-fowls.

Spiders web a plexus of very delicate threads or filaments which a spider spins from its bowels, and which serves as a net to catch flies or other insects for its food.

WEB of a coulter, is the thin sharp part.

WEBBED, adjective [from web.] Having the toes united by a membrane, or web; as the webbed feet of aquatic fowls.

WED, verb transitive [Latin , to give bail; a league; probably both are of one family.]

1. To marry; to take for a husband or for wife.

--Since the day I saw thee first, and wedded thee.

2. To join in marriage.

And Adam, wedded to another Eve, shall live with her--

3. To unite closely in affection; to attach firmly. WE are apt to be wedded to our own customs and opinions.

Men are wedded to their lusts.

4. To unite for ever.

Thou art wedded to calamity.

5. To espouse; to take part with.

They wedded his cause.

WED, verb intransitive To marry; to contract matrimony.

When shall I wed?

WED, noun A pledge.

WEDDED, participle passive Married; closely attached.

WEDDING, participle present tense Marrying; uniting with in matrimony.

WEDDING, noun Marriage; nuptials; nuptial ceremony; nuptial festivities.

Let her beauty be her wedding dower.

WEDGE, noun [This word signifies a mass, a lump.]

1. A mass of metal; as a wedge of gold or silver. Joshua 7:21.

2. A piece of metal, particularly iron, thick at one end and sloping to a thin edge at the other, used in splitting wood, rocks, etc. This is one of the five mechanical powers. A like piece of wood is by some persons called a wedge or a glut.

3. Something in the form of a wedge Sometimes bodies of troops are drawn up in the form of a wedge

WEDGE, verb transitive

1. To cleave with a wedge; to rive. [Little used.]

2. To drive as a wedge is drive; to crowd or compress closely. We were wedged in by the crowd.

3. To force, as a wedge forces its way; as, to wedge ones way.

4. To fasten with a wedge or with wedges; as, to wedge on a sythe; to wedge in a rail or a piece of timber.

5. To fix in the manner of a wedge

Wedgd in the rocky shoals, and sticking fast.

WEDGED, participle passive Split with a wedge; fastened with a wedge; closely compressed.

WEDGING, participle present tense Cleaving with a wedge; fastening with wedges; compressing closely.

WEDLOCK, noun Marriage; matrimony.

WEDLOCK, verb transitive To marry. [Little used.]

WEDLOCKED, participle passive United in marriage. [Little used.]

WEDNESDAY, noun Wenzday. The fourth day of the week; the next day after Tuesday.

WEE, adjective [G.] Small; little. [Not in use.]

WEECHELM, WITCH-ELM, noun A species of elm.

WEED, noun

1. The general name of any plant that is useless or noxious. The word therefore has no definite application to any particular plant or species of plants; but whatever plants grow among corn, grass, or in hedges, and which are either of no use to man or injurious to crops, are denominated weeds.

2. Any kind of unprofitable substance among ores in mines, as mundic or marcasite.

WEED, noun

1. Properly, a garment, as in Spenser, but now used only in the plural, weeds, for the mourning apparel of a female; as a widows weeds.

2. An upper garment.

WEED, verb transitive

1. To free from noxious plants; as, to weed corn or onions; to weed a garden.

2. To take away, as noxious plants; as, to weed a writing of invectives.

3. To free from any thing hurtful or offensive; as, to weed a kingdom of bad subjects.

4. To root out vice; as, to weed the hearts of the young.

WEEDED, participle passive Freed from weeds or whatever is noxious.

WEEDER, noun One that weeds or frees from any thing noxious.

WEEDING, participle present tense Freeing from weeds or whatever is noxious to growth.

WEEDING, noun The operation of freeing from noxious weeds, as a crop.

WEEDLESS, adjective Free from weeds or noxious matter.

WEEDY, adjective

1. Consisting of weeds; as weedy trophies.

2. Abounding with weeds; as weedy grounds; a weedy garden; weedy corn.

WEEK, noun [G.]

1. The space of seven days.

I fast twice in the week Luke 18:12.

2. In Scripture, a prophetic week is a week of years, or seven years. Daniel 9:27.

WEEKLY, adjective Coming, happening or done once a week; hebdomadary; as a weekly payment of bills; a weekly gazette; a weekly allowance.

WEEKLY, adverb Once a week; by hebdomadal periods; as, each performs service weekly

WEEL, noun [See Well.] A whirlpool. [Not in use.]

WEEL, WEELY noun A kind of twiggin trap or snare for fish.

WEEN, verb intransitive [G., to imagine. The sense is to set, fix or hold in the mind.] To think; to imagine; to fancy. [Obsolete, except in burlesque.]

WEENING, participle present tense Thinking; imagining.

WEEP, verb intransitive preterit tense and participle passive wept. Weeped, I believe is never used. [See Whoop. The primary sense is to cry out.]

1. To express sorrow, grief or anguish by outcry. This is the original sense. But in present usage, to manifest and express grief by outcry or by shedding tears.

They all wept sore, and fell on Pauls neck, and kissed him. Acts 20:1.

Phocion was rarely seen to weep or to laugh.

2. To shed tears from any passion. Persons sometimes weep for joy.

3. To lament; to complain. Numbers 11:10.

WEEP, verb transitive

1. To lament; to bewail; to bemoan.

We wandring go through dreary wastes, and weep each others woe.

2. To shed moisture; as, to weep tears of joy.

Groves whose rich trees wept odrous gum and balm.

3. To drop; as the weeping amber.

4. To abound with wet; as weeping grounds.

WEEPER, noun

1. One who weeps; one who sheds tears.

2. A white border on the sleeve of a mourning coat.

3. A species of monkey, the Simia Capucina.

WEEPING, participle present tense Lamenting; shedding tears.

WEEPING, noun Lamentation.

WEERISH, adjective Insipid; weak; washy; surly. [Not in use.]

WEESEL, the more proper spelling of weasel.

WEET, verb transitive preterit tense wot. [Latin , Gr.] To know.

WEETLESS, adjective Unknowing.

WEEVER, noun A fish, called also sea-dragon. [Latin] A fish of the genus Trachinus, the spines of whose dorsal fins are supposed to be poisonous.

WEEVIL, noun [G.] A small insect that does great damage to wheat or other corn, by eating into the grains and devouring the farinaceous part. This insect is of the beetle kind, somewhat large than a louse.

WEFT, old preterit tense of wave.

WEFT, noun [from weave.]

1. To woof of cloth; the threads that cross the warp.

2. A web; a thing woven.

WEFT, noun A thing waved, waived, or cast away. [Not used.] [See Waif.]

WEFTAGE, noun Texture. [Not used.]

WEIGH, verb transitive wa. [Latin , G. See Wag.]

1. To examine by the balance; to ascertain the weight, that is, the force with which a thing tends to the center of gravity; as, to weigh sugar; to weigh gold.

2. To be equivalent to in weight; that is, according to the Saxon sense of the verb, to lift to an equipoise a weight on the other side of the fulcrum. Thus when a body balances a weight of twenty eight pounds avoirdupois, it lifts or bears it, and is said to weigh so much. It weighs a quarter of a hundred.

3. To raise; to lift; as an anchor from the ground, or any other body; as, to weigh anchor; to weigh an old hulk.

4. To pay, allot or take by weight.

They weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. Zechariah 11:12.

5. To ponder in the mind; to consider or examine for the purpose of forming an opinion or coming to a conclusion; as, to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of a scheme.

Regard not who it is which speaketh, but weigh only what is spoken.

6. To compare by the scales.

Here in nice balance truth with gold she weighs.

7. To regard; to consider as worthy of notice.

I weigh not you.

To weigh down,

1. To overbalance.

2. To oppress with weight; to depress.

WEIGH, verb intransitive

1. To have weight; as, to weigh lighter or heavier.

2. To be considered as important; to have weight in the intellectual balance. This argument weighs with the considerate part of the community.

3. To bear heavily; to press hard.

--Cleanse the stuffd bosom of that perilous stuff, which weighs upon the heart.

To weigh down, to sink by its own weight.

WEIGH, noun A certain quantity. A weigh of wool, cheese, etc., is 256 lb. Avoirdupois; a weigh of corn is forty bushels; of barly or malt, six quarters.

WEIGHABLE, adjective That may be weighed.

WEIGHED, participle passive

1. Examined by the scales; having the weight ascertained.

2. Considered.

3. adjective Experienced; as a young man not weighed in state affair. [Not in use.]

WEIGHER, noun

1. One who weighs.

2. An officer whose duty is to weigh commodities.

WEIGHING, participle present tense Examining by scales; considering.

WEIGHING, noun

1. The act of ascertaining weight.

2. As much as is weighed at once; as a weighing of beef.

WEIGHT, noun Wate. [See Weigh.]

1. The quantity of a body, ascertained by the balance; in a philosophical sense, that quality of bodies by which they tend towards the center of the earth in a line perpendicular to its surface. In short, weight is gravity, and the weight of a particular body is the amount of its gravity, or of the force with which it tends to the center. The weight of a body is in direct proportion to its quantity of matter.

2. A mass of iron, lead, brass or other metal, to be used for ascertaining the weight of other bodies; as a weight of an ounce, a pound, a quarter of a hundred, etc. The weights of nations are different except those of England and the United States, which are the same.

3. A ponderous mass; something heavy.

A man leaps better with weights in his hands.

4. Pressure; burden; as the weight of grief; weight of care; weight of business; weight of government.

5. Importance; power; influence; efficacy; consequence; moment; impressiveness; as a argument of great weight; a consideration of vast weight The dignity of a mans character adds weight to his words.

WEIGHTILY, adverb

1. Heavily; ponderously.

2. With force or impressiveness; with moral power.

WEIGHTINESS, noun

1. Ponderousness; gravity; heaviness.

2. Solidity; force; impressiveness; power of convincing; as the weightiness of an argument.

3. Importance.

WEIGHTLESS, adjective Having no weight; light.

WEIGHTY, adjective

1. Having great weight; heavy; ponderous; as a weighty body.

2. Important; forcible; momentous; adapted to turn the balance in the mind, or to convince; as weighty reasons; weighty matters; weighty considerations or arguments.

3. Rigorous; severe; as our weightier judgment. [Not in use.]

WEIRD, adjective Skilled in witchcraft. [Not in use.]

WEIVE, for waive. [Not in use.]

WELAWAY, an exclamation expressive of grief or sorrow, equivalent to alas. It is a compound of Sax. Wa, wo and la, oh. The original is wa-la, which is doubtless the origin of our common exclamation, O la, and to this, wa, wo, is added. The true orthography would be wa la wa. But the word is, I believe, wholly obsolete.

WELCOME, adjective

1. Received with gladness; admitted willingly to the house, entertainment and company; as a welcome guest.

2. Grateful; pleasing; as a welcome present; welcome news.

3. Free to have or enjoy gratuitously. You are welcome to the use of my library.

To bid welcome to receive with professions of kindness.

WELCOME, is used elliptically for you are welcome

WELCOME, great monarch, to your own.

WELCOME to our house, an herb.

WELCOME, noun

1. Salutation of a new comer.

WELCOME ever smiles--

2. Kind reception of a guest or new comer. We entered the house and found a ready welcome

Truth finds an entrance and a welcome too.

WELCOME, verb transitive To salute a new comer with kindness; or to receive and entertain hospitable, gratuitously and cheerfully.

Thus we salute thee with our early song, and welcome thee, and wish thee long.

WELCOMED, participle passive Received with gladness and kindness.

WELCOMELY, adverb In a welcome manner.

WELCOMENESS, noun Gratefulness; agreeableness; kind reception.

WELCOMER, noun One who salutes or receives kindly a new comer.

WELCOMING, participle present tense Saluting or receiving with kindness a new comer or guest.

WELD, WOLD, noun A plant of the genus Reseda, used by dyers to give a yellow color, and sometimes called dyers weed. It is much cultivated in Kent for the London dyers.

WELD, verb transitive To wield.

WELD, verb transitive [G., to join.] To unite or hammer into firm union, as two pieces of iron, when heated almost to fusion.

WELDED, participle passive Forged or beat into union in an intense heat.

WELDER, noun

1. One who welds iron.

2. A manager; an actual occupant. [Not in use.]

WELDING, participle present tense Uniting in an intense heat.

WELFARE, noun [well and fare, a good faring; G.]

1. Exemption from misfortune, sickness, calamity or evil; the enjoyment of health and the common blessings of life; prosperity; happiness; applied to persons.

2. Exemption from any unusual evil or calamity; the enjoyment of peace and prosperity, or the ordinary blessings of society and civil government; applied to states.

WELK, verb intransitive [G., to wither, to fade, to decay; primarily to shrink or contract, as things in drying, whence the Saxon weole, a whilk or whelk, a shell; from its wrinkles.] To decline; to fade; to decay; to fall.

When ruddy Phoebus gins to welk in west.

WELK, verb transitive To contract; to shorten.

Now sad winter welked hath the day-- [This word is obsolete. But its signification has heretofore been misunderstood.]

WELKED, participle passive or adjective Contracted into wrinkles or ridges.

--Horns welkd and wavd like the enridged sea.

WELKIN, noun [G., a cloud.] The visible regions of the air; the vault of heaven. [This is obsolete, unless in poetry.]

WELKIN eye, in Shakespeare, is interpreted by Johnson, a blue eye, from welkin the sky; by Todd, a rolling eye, from Sax. Wealcan, to roll; and by Entick, a languishing eye. See Welk. It is obsolete, at least in New England.

WELKING, participle present tense Fading; declining; contracting.

WELL, noun [G., a spring; to spring, to issue forth, to gush, to well to swell. G., a wave. On this word I suppose swell to be formed.]

1. A spring; a fountain; the issuing of water from the earth.

Begin then, sisters of the sacred well [In this sense obsolete.]

2. A pit or cylindrical hole, sunk perpendicularly into the earth to such a depth as to reach a supply of water, and walled with stone to prevent the earth from caving in.

3. In ships, an apartment in the middle of a ships hold, to inclose the pumps, from the bottom to the lower deck.

4. In a fishing vessel, an apartment in the middle of the hold, made tight at the sides, but having holes perforated int he bottom to let in fresh water for the preservation of fish, while they are transported to market.

5. In the military art, a hole or excavation in the earth, in mining, from which run branches or galleries.

WELLADAY, alas, Johnson supposes to be a corruption of welaway, which see.

WELLBEING, noun [well and being.] Welfare; happiness; prosperity; as, virtue is essential to the well being of men or of society.

WELLFARE, is now written welfare.

WELSH, adjective [G., foreign, strange, Celtic.] Pertaining to the welsh nation.

WELSH, noun

1. The language of Wales or of the welsh

2. The general name of the inhabitants of Wales. The word signifies foreigners or wanderers, and was given to this people by other nations, probably because they came from some distant country. The welsh call themselves Cymry, in the plural, and a Welshman Cymro, and their country Cymra, of which the adjective is Cymreig, and the name of their language, Cymraeg. They are supposed to be the Cimbri of Jutland.

WELT, noun [See Wall.] A border; a kind of hem or edging, as on a garment or piece of cloth, or on a shoe.

WELT, verb transitive To furnish with a welt; to sew on a border.

WELTER, verb transitive [G., Latin ] To roll, as the body of an animal; but usually, to roll or wallow in some foul matter; as, to welter in blood or in filth.

WELTERING, participle present tense Rolling; wallowing; as in mire, blood, or other filthy matter.

WEM, noun A spot; a scar.

WEM, verb intransitive To corrupt.

WEN, noun An encysted swelling or tumor; also, a fleshy excrescence growing on animals, sometimes to a large size.

WENCH, noun

1. A young woman. [Little used.]

2. A young woman of ill fame.

3. In America, a black or colored female servant; a negress.

WENCH, verb intransitive To frequent the company of women of ill fame.

WENCHER, noun A lewd man.

WENCHING, participle present tense Frequenting women of ill fame.

WEND, verb intransitive

1. To go; to pass to or from. [Obsolete, except in poetry; but its preterit, went, is in common use.]

2. To turn round. [Wend and wind are from the same root.]

WENNEL, noun A weanel. [See Weanel.]

WENNISH, WENNY, adjective [from wen.] Having the nature of a wen.

WENNISH, WENNY adjective [from wen.] Having the nature of a wen.

WENT, preterit tense of the obsolete verb wend. We now arrange went in grammar as the preterit of go, but in origin it has no connection with it.

WEPT, preterit tense and participle passive of weep.

When he had come near, he beheld the city and wept over it. Luke 19:41.

WERE, pronoun er, which when prolonged, becomes ware. This is used as the imperfect tense plural of be; we were you were they were; and in some other tenses. It is the Danish verb vaerer, to be, to exist, and in origin has no connection with be, nor with was. It is united with be, to supply its want of tenses, as went is with go.

WERE, noun A dam. [See Wear.]

WEREGILD, noun Formerly, the price of a mans head; a compensation paid for a man killed, partly to the king for the loss of a subject, and partly tot he lord of the vassal, and partly to the next of kin. It was paid by the murderer.

WERNERIAN, adjective Pertaining to Werner, the German mineralogist, who arranged minerals in classes, etc. according to their external characters.

WERNERITE, noun A mineral, regarded by Werener as a subspecies of scapolite; called foliated scapolite. It is named from that distinguished mineralogist, Werner. It is found massive, and crystalized in octahedral prisms with four sided pyramidical terminations, disseminated in rocks or grayish or red feldspar. It is imperfectly lamellar, of a greenish, grayish, or olive green color, with a pearly or resinous luster. It is softer than feldspar, and melts into a white enamel.

WERT, the second person singular of the subjunctive imperfect tense of be. [See Were.]

Werth, worth, in names, signifies a farm, court or village.

First occurrence in the Bible(KJV): Job 8:6

WEASAND, WESAND noun s as z. The windpipe or trachea; the canal through which air passes to and from the lungs.

WESIL, for weasand. [Not in use.]

WEST, noun [Latin , a decline or fall, departure. In elements, it coincides with waste.]

1. In strictness, that point of the horizon where the sun sets at the equinox, or any point in a direct line between the spectator or other object, and that point of the horizon; or west is the intersection of the prime vertical with the horizon, on that side where the sun sets. west is directly opposite to east, and one of the cardinal points. In a less strict sense, west is the region of the hemisphere near the point where the sun sets when in the equator. Thus we say, a star sets in the west a meteor appears in the west a cloud rises in the west

2. A country situated in the region towards the sun-setting, with respect to another. Thus in the United States, the inhabitants of the Atlantic states speak of the inhabitants of Ohio, Kentucky or Missouri, and call them people of the west; and formerly, the empire of Rome was called the empire of the west in opposition to the empire of the East, the seat of which was Constantinople.

WEST, adjective

1. Being in a line towards the point where the sun sets when in the equator; or in a looser sense, being in the region near the line of direction towards that point, either on the earth or in the heavens.

This shall be your west border. Numbers 34:6.

2. Coming or moving from the west or western region; as a west wind.

WEST, adverb To the western region; at the westward; more westward; as, Ireland lies west of England.

WEST, verb intransitive To pass to the west; to set, as the sun. [Not in use.]

WESTERING, adjective Passing to the west. [I believe not now used.]

WESTERLY, adjective

1. Being towards the west; situated in the western region; as the westerly parts of England.

2. Moving from the westward; as a westerly wind.

WESTERLY, adverb Tending, going or moving towards the west; as a man traveling westerly

WESTERN, adjective

1. Being in the west, or int he region nearly in the direction of west; being in that quarter where the sun sets; as the western shore of France; the western ocean.

2. Moving in a line to the part where the sun sets; as, the ship makes a western course.

WESTING, noun Space or distance westward; or departure; as the westing and southing of a ship.

WESTWARD, adverb [Latin] Towards the west; as, to ride or sail westward

WESTWARDLY, adverb In a direction towards the west; as, to pass westwardly

WET, adjective [Gr., Latin ]

1. Containing water, as wet land, or a wet cloth; or having water or other liquid upon the surface, as a wet table. wet implies more water or liquid than moist or humid.

2. Rainy; as wet weather; a wet season.

WET, noun

1. Water or wetness; moisture or humidity in considerable degree. Wear thick shoes or pattens to keep your feet from the wet

2. Rainy weather; foggy or misty weather.

WET, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive wet But wetted is sometimes used.

1. To fill or moisten with water or other liquid; to sprinkle or humectate; to cause to have water or other fluid adherent to the surface; to dip or soak in liquor; as, to wet a spunge; to wet the hands; to wet cloth.

WET the thirsty earth with falling showrs.

2. To moisten with drink.

WETHER, noun A ram castrated.

WETNESS, noun

1. The state of being wet, either by being soaked or filled with liquor, or by having a liquid adherent to the surface; as the wetness of land; the wetness of a cloth. It implies more water or liquid than humidness or moisture.

2. A watery or moist state of the atmosphere; a state of being rainy, foggy or misty; as the wetness of weather or the season.

WETTISH, adjective Somewhat wet; moist; humid.

WEX, verb transitive or I. To grow; to wax. [Not to be used.] [See Wax.]

WEZAND, for weasand. [See the latter.] [Note--In words beginning with wh, the letter h, or aspirate, when both letters are pronounced, precedes the sound of w. Thus what, when, are pronounced hwat, hwen. So they were written by our ancestors, and so they ought to be written still, as they are by the Danes and Swedes.]