whelp
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L29125 on Wikidata ↗verb
- sire or birth
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /wɛlp/ / /ʍɛlp/
intj
Etymology: Variant of welp.
- Alternative form of welp (“well”).
noun
Etymology: From 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.”
- An insolent youth; a mere child.
“July 13, 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian That awkward whelp with his money bags would have made his entrance.”
“October 22, 2011, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "Luna Eclipsed" Thy backside is whole and ungobbled, thou ungrateful whelp!”
- A 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).
verb
Etymology: From Middle English whelpen, from Old English hwelpian, derived from hwelp.
- To give birth.
“The bitch whelped.”
“The she-wolf whelped a large litter of cubs.”