welk

From Middle English welken, probably from a continental Germanic language; compare Middle Dutch welken (Dutch welken) and Middle Low German welken. Cognate with German welken.

welk (third-person singular simple present welks, present participle welking, simple past and past participle welked)

1. (obsolete) Of a plant: to wither, wilt, decay.
2. (obsolete) To diminish; to lose brightness, to wane.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.i.23:

     As gentle Shepheard in sweete euentide, / When ruddy Phoebus gins to welke in west [...].

   • Milton

     The church, that before by insensible degrees welked and impaired, now with large steps went down hill decaying.

3. (dialectal) to soak, steep.
4. (dialectal) to thrash, beat severely.
5. To contract; to shorten.
   • Edmund Spenser

     Now sad winter welked hath the day.

6. (transitive) To form into wrinkles or ridges.

welk (plural welks)

1. Alternative form of whelk

• kewl

From Middle Dutch welc, from Old Dutch *wilik, *welik, from Proto-Germanic *hwilīkaz.

• Rhymes: -ɛlk
• IPA^(key): /ʋɛlk/

• Audio

  (file)

welk

1. which (what, of those mentioned or implied)

welk

1. (relative) which

• kwel

From Middle High German [Term?], from Old High German [Term?]. Cognate with Hunsrik wellich.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɛlk/

• Audio

  (file)

welk (comparative welker, superlative am welksten or am welkesten)

1. wilted, faded

• welken
• verwelken

• welk in Duden online

welk

1. Alternative form of welken (“to dry out”)