/wɛlp/, /ʍɛlp/
OriginFrom Middle English whelp, from Old English hwelp, from Proto-West Germanic *hwelp, from Proto-Germanic *hwelpaz (compare Dutch welp, German Welpe, Welfe, Old Norse hvelpr, Norwegian Nynorsk kvelp, Danish hvalp), from pre-Germanic *kʷelbos, of uncertain origin.
- A young offspring of a various carnivores (canid, ursid, felid, pinniped), especially of a dog or a wolf, the young of a bear or similar mammal (lion, tiger, seal); a pup, wolf cub.
“[…]And fared like a furious wyld Beare, / Whose whelpes are ſtolne away, ſhe being otherwhere.”
“Pro. […]Then was this Iſland / (Saue for the Son, that he^([sic]) did littour heere, / A frekelld whelpe, hag-borne) not honour'd with / A humane ſhape.”
- obsoleteA kind of ship.
- One of several wooden strips to prevent wear on a windlass on a clipper-era ship.
- A tooth on a sprocket wheel (compare sprocket and cog).
- ambitransitive, usuallyTo give birth.
“The bitch whelped.”
“The she-wolf whelped a large litter of cubs.”
Formswhelps(plural) · whelps(present, singular, third-person) · whelping(participle, present) · whelped(participle, past) · whelped(past)