Wel"ter, a. (Horse Racing) Of, pertaining to, or designating, the most
heavily weighted race in a meeting; as, a welter race; the welter
stakes.
Wel"ter, n.
1. That in which any person or thing welters, or wallows; filth; mire;
slough.
The foul welter of our so-called religious or other controversies.
Carlyle.
2. A rising or falling, as of waves; as, the welter of the billows; the
welter of a tempest.
||Wel*witsch"i*a (?), n. [NL. So named after the discoverer, Dr.
||Friedrich Welwitsch.] (Bot.) An African plant (Welwitschia mirabilis)
||belonging to the order Gnetaceæ. It consists of a short, woody,
||topshaped stem, and never more than two leaves, which are the
||cotyledons enormously developed, and at length split into diverging
||segments.
||
Wem (?), n. [Cf. Womb.] The abdomen; the uterus; the womb. [Obs.]
Wem, n. [AS. wam, wamm.] Spot; blemish; harm; hurt. [Obs.] Wyclif.
Withouten wem of you, through foul and fair.
Chaucer.
Wem, v. t. [AS. wemman.] To stain; to blemish; to harm; to corrupt.
[Obs.]
Wem"less, a. Having no wem, or blemish; spotless. [Obs.] "Virgin
wemless." Chaucer.
Wen (wn), n. [AS. wenn; akin to D. wen, LG. wenne.] (Med.) An indolent,
encysted tumor of the skin; especially, a sebaceous cyst.
Wench (wnch), n. [OE. wenche, for older wenchel a child, originally,
weak, tottering; cf. AS. wencle a maid, a daughter, wencel a pupil,
orphan, wincel, winclu, children, offspring, wencel weak, wancol
unstable, OHG. wanchol; perhaps akin to E. wink. See Wink.]