weld

• IPA^(key): /wɛld/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Homophone: welled
• Rhymes: -ɛld

From Middle English welde, wolde, from Old English *weald, weard, variant form of wād, Proto-West Germanic *waiʀd, from Proto-Germanic *waizdaz. Alternatively reborrowed from or contaminated by Anglo-Norman wold, wolde (compare Old French guaide). Doublet of woad.[1] Dutch wouw is derived from the same basic form with -l-.

• woald, wold

weld

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

A person welding

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 join two materials (especially two metals) together by applying heat, pressure and filler, either separately or in any combination.
2. (transitive) To bind together inseparably; to unite closely or intimately.

   The arrows pierced through the welded ranks of the opposing army.

   • 1847, Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Princess:

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

   • 1951 April, D. S. Barrie, “British Railways: A Survey, 1948-1950”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 223:

     The organisational and administrative tasks involved in welding the railways into a single entity have also received much publicity.

weld (plural welds)

1. The joint made by welding.
   • 2001, James E. Duffy, I-Car Professional Automotive Collision Repair, page 173:

     Excessive spot weld time may cause the electrode tips to mushroom, resulting in no focus of current and a weak weld.

• butt weld
• scarf weld

• braze
• solder

From Old English weald (sense 2).

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"

   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC; reprinted as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, The Shepheardes Calender […], London: John C. Nimmo, […], 1890, →OCLC:

     Turne thee to those that weld the awfull crowne

• “weld”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• WLED, lewd

• well (chiefly Moselle Franconian)

From Middle High German wilde, from Old High German wildi, from Proto-West Germanic *wilþī, from Proto-Germanic *wilþijaz.

• IPA^(key): /ʋelt/

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

1. (chiefly Ripuarian) wild

• The traditional inflections are those with -ll- in all dialects. However, those with -ld- are now predominant in some dialects under standard German influence.

weld

1. (Southern) Alternative form of wold

• IPA^(key): /wɛld/

weld

1. Soft mutation of gweld (“to see”).