weld

• IPA^(key): /wɛld/
• Homophone: welled
• Rhymes: -ɛld

From Middle English welde, wolde, from Old English *wielde, *weald, from Proto-Germanic *walþijō, *walþō (compare Dutch wouw, Middle Low German walde, wolde, gaude in French), from Proto-Germanic *walþuz (“forest”). More at wold.

• wold

weld (plural welds)

1. A herb (Reseda luteola) related to mignonette, growing in Europe, and to some extent in America, used to make a yellow dye.
2. The yellow coloring matter or dye extracted from this plant.

• (Reseda luteola): dyer's rocket; dyer's weed; wild woad

Alteration of well (“boil, rise”), probably influenced by the past participle, welled

weld (third-person singular simple present welds, present participle welding, simple past and past participle welded)

1. (transitive) To bind together inseparably; to unite closely or intimately.
   • 1847: Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Princess

     Now should men see / Two women faster welded in one love / Than pairs of wedlock.

2. (transitive) To join two materials (especially two metals) together by applying heat, pressure and filler, either separately or in any combination.

weld (plural welds)

1. The state of being welded.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

2. The joint made by welding.

• butt weld
• scarf weld

• solder
• braze

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

weld (third-person singular simple present welds, present participle welding, simple past and past participle welded)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To wield.
   • 1485: Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte D'Arthur, p. 168 line 2 (Sommer edition)

     [Arthur says to a wicked giant] "he that alle the world weldeth gyue the ſorte lyf & ſameful dethe" ("He who wields all the world gives thee short life and shameful death")

   • 1485: Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte D'Arthur, p. 172 line 2 (Sommer edition)

     [Arthur says to conquering knights] "ye be worthy to welde all your honour and worship"

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Edmund Spenser to this entry?)

• weld in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• lewd

• well (chiefly Moselle Franconian)

From Old High German wildi, from Proto-Germanic *wilþijaz.

• IPA^(key): /ʋelt/

weld (masculine welde or welle, feminine weld or well, comparative welder or weller, superlative et' weldste)

1. (chiefly Ripuarian) wild

• The traditional inflected forms are those with -ll- in all dialects. Those with -ld- are now predominant, however, in many dialects under standard German influence.

• IPA^(key): /wɛld/

weld

1. Soft mutation of gweld (“to see”).