wield

From Middle English welden, from Old English wieldan (“to control”), from Proto-Germanic *waldijaną.

• enPR: wēld, IPA^(key): /wiːld/

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• Rhymes: -iːld
• Homophones: weald, Weald
• Homophone: wheeled (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

wield (third-person singular simple present wields, present participle wielding, simple past and past participle wielded)

1. (obsolete) To command, rule over; to possess or own.
   • 1485 July 31, Thomas Malory, “Capitulum 7”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book V, [London]: […] [by William Caxton], OCLC 71490786; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034:

     There was never kyng sauff myselff that welded evir such knyghtes.

2. (obsolete) To control, to guide or manage.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.10:

     With such his chearefull speaches he doth wield / Her mind so well, that to his will she bends […].

3. To handle with skill and ease, especially a weapon or tool.
4. To exercise (authority or influence) effectively.

• bewield
• unwield
• wieldsome
• wieldy

• Wilde, wiled

From Old Frisian wilde, from Proto-Germanic *wilþijaz. More at wild.

wield

1. wild

• wüüld

From Old English wieldan (“to control”), a derivative of wealdan (“to govern”), from Proto-Germanic *waldaną. Cognate with German walten, Swedish vålla.

• IPA^(key): /wiːld/

wield

1. To control, to guide or manage.