welt

• Rhymes: -ɛlt

From Middle English welten, from Old English weltan, wieltan, from Proto-Germanic *waltijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to turn; wind; twist”). Cognate with German wälzen, Danish vælte, Swedish välta, Icelandic velta.

welt (third-person singular simple present welts, present participle welting, simple past and past participle welted)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To roll; revolve

• welter

Circa 1425, a shoemaker's term. Perhaps related to Middle English welten (“to overturn, roll over”), from Old Norse velta (“to roll”). Meaning "ridge on the skin from a wound" first recorded 1800.

welt (plural welts)

1. A ridge or lump on the skin, as caused by a blow; a wheal or weal.
2. (shoemaking) A strip of leather set into the seam between the outsole of a shoe and the upper, through which these parts are joined by stitching or stapling.
3. A strip of material or covered cord applied to a seam or garment edge to strengthen or cover it.
4. In steam boilers and sheet-iron work, a strip riveted upon the edges of plates that form a butt joint.
5. In carpentry, a strip of wood fastened over a flush seam or joint, or an angle, to strengthen it.
6. In machine-made stockings, a strip, or flap, of which the heel is formed.
7. (heraldry) A narrow border, as of an ordinary, but not extending around the ends.
8. A feature resembling a welt.
   • 2018, Susan Orlean, chapter 6, in The Library Book:

     “The neighborhood is officially called Mid-City, but it is often referred to as Crenshaw. The area is wide and bright, a grid of small streets crisscrossed with boulevards and the welt of the I-10 freeway running along its southern edge.”

welt (third-person singular simple present welts, present participle welting, simple past and past participle welted)

1. To cause to have welts, to beat.
2. To install welt (a welt or welts) to reinforce.

welt (third-person singular simple present welts, present participle welting, simple past and past participle welted)

1. (Britain, dialectal, archaic, intransitive) To decay.
2. (Britain, dialectal, archaic, intransitive) To become stringy.

• wilt

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• Rhymes: -ɛlt

welt

1. second- and third-person singular present indicative of wellen
2. (archaic) plural imperative of wellen