welk

• IPA^(key): /wɛlk/
• Rhymes: -ɛlk

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. Ultimately, from Proto-West Germanic *wilkijan (“to become soft”), from Proto-Germanic *welkaz (“soft, withered”), according to Kluge, related to *wulkną (“cloud”).

Compare also Old English wealwian (“to fade, wither”), Old English wlacu (“tepid, lukewarm”).

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, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 23, page 9:

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

   • 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC, 2nd book, page 257:

     [T]he Church that before by inſenſible degrees welk'd and impair'd, now with large ſteps went down hill decaying; [...]

3. (dialectal) to soak, steep.
4. (dialectal) to thrash, beat severely.
5. To contract; to shorten.
   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Nouember. Ægloga Vndecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 44, verso:

     But nowe ſadde Winter welked hath the day, / And Phœbus weary of his yerely taſ-ke: / Yſtabled hath his ſteedes in lowlye laye / And taken vp his ynne in Fiſhes haſ-ke.

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

welk (plural welks)

1. Alternative form of whelk.

• kewl, lewk

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

• IPA^(key): /ʋɛlk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: welk
• Rhymes: -ɛlk

welk

1. which, what

   In welke stad werd Rembrandt geboren? ― In which city was Rembrandt born?

welk

1. (interrogative) which, which one

   Welke vind je het mooist? ― Which one do you find prettiest?

2. (relative, formal) which

   De verdachte sloeg het slachtoffer met een door hem meegevoerde knuppel, welke hij tot dan toe achter zijn rug had verborgen.

   The accused hit the victim with a baton that he carried, which he had hidden behind his back until that moment.

• Berbice Creole Dutch: weleke
• Negerhollands: welk, welleke, welli
• Skepi Creole Dutch: welk

• kwel

From Middle High German welc, from Old High German welk; see the verb welken. Cognate with Hunsrik wellich.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɛlk/

• Audio:

  (file)

welk (strong nominative masculine singular welker, comparative welker, superlative am welksten or am welkesten)

1. wilted, faded

• welken
• verwelken

• “welk” in Duden online
• “welk” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

From Old English weoloc, wiloc, wioloc, weluc, from Proto-West Germanic *weluk.

• welke, whelke, wilke, woelk, wylk, wylke

• IPA^(key): /wɛlk/, /wilk/

welk (plural welkes)

1. whelk (sea snail)
2. (rare) whelk shell

• English: whelk, welk, whilk, wilk
• Scots: wulk, wilk, welk
• → Old French: welke

• “welk(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

welk

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