wallow
/ˈwɒ.ləʊ/
wallow verb: to roll oneself about in something dirty, for example in mud.
Verb (1)
wallow (third-person singular simple present wallows, present participle wallowing, simple past and past participle wallowed)
- To roll oneself about in something dirty, for example in mud.
- Pigs wallow in the mud.
- O be thou my Charon, / And giue me ſwift tranſportance to theſe fieldes, / VVhere I may wallow in the lilly beds, / Propoſ'd for the deſeruer.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609...
- Synonyms:
- welter
- To move lazily or heavily in any medium.
- The fire was thrown to a great height; the fountains and jets all wallowed together; new ones appeared, and danced joyously round the margin, then converging towards the centre they merged into one glowing mass, which upheaved itself pyramidally and disappeared with a vast plunge.1875, Isabella L. Bird, The Hawaiian Archipelago
- “A Hot Steam’s somebody who can’t get to heaven, just wallows around on lonesome roads an‘ if you walk through him, when you die you’ll be one too, an’ you’ll go around at night suckin‘ people’s breath-”1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC
- To immerse oneself in, to occupy oneself with, metaphorically.
- She wallowed in her misery.
- If there be any lazy Fellow, any that cannot away with Work, any that would wallow in Pleaſures, he is haſty to be prieſted. And, when he is made one, and hath gotten a Benefice, he conſorts with his Neighbour Prieſts, who are altogether given to Pleaſures; and then both he, and they, live, not...1610, Alexander Cooke, “Pope Joane”, in William Oldys, editor, The Harleian Miscellany: […], volume IV, London: T[homas] Osborne, […], published 1745, →OCLC, page 125
- To live or exist in filth or in a sickening manner.
- God sees a man wallowing in his native impurity.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
- The floors are at times inches deep with dirt and scraps of clothing. The whole place wallows with putrefaction. In some of the rooms it would seem that there had not been a breath of fresh air for five years.1895, The Review of Reviews, volume 11, page 215
Noun
wallow (plural wallows)
- An instance of wallowing.
- A pool of water or mud in which animals wallow, or the depression left by them in the ground.
- However, we have no time to linger, and picking our way among the countless buffalo wallows which indent the level surface of the summit, the wagon, […]1901, George Bird Grinnell, Theodore Roosevelt, editors, American Big-Game Hunting
- Soon, the incessant wind would dry the stenchy wallow to corduroyed cement.2003, Suzann Ledbetter, A Lady Never Trifles with Thieves
- A kind of rolling walk.
Verb (2)
wallow (third-person singular simple present wallows, present participle wallowing, simple past and past participle wallowed)
Adjective
wallow (comparative more wallow, superlative most wallow)
wallow meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Arabic
wallow in Tamil
- மண்ணில் அல்லது சேற்றில் புரள், உருளு, திக்கு, திணறு
wallow in Urdu
- کیچڑ میں روندنا پھوندنا, گند میں لوٹنا, مصیبتوں میں گھرنا
wallow in Malayalam
- to wallow, welter, roll
- പുരളുക puraḷuka
wallow in Arabic
- to roll oneself about, as in mire; to tumble and roll about; to move lazily or heavily in any medium; to flounder; as, swine wallow in the mire
- تَمَرَّغَ tamarraḡa
More languagesFewer languages
- wallow in Persian
- مراغه کردن marâġe kardan, مراغیدن marâġidan
Examples of wallow in a sentence
- Make ye him drunken: for hee magnified himselfe against the Lord: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shalbe in derision.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 48:26:
- When Manſoul trampled upon things Divine, / And wallowed in filth as doth a ſwine:1682, John Bunyan, “To the Reader”, in The Holy War, Made by Shaddai upon Diabolus, for the Regaining of the Metropolis of the World. […]...
- If there be any lazy Fellow, any that cannot away with Work, any that would wallow in Pleaſures, he is haſty to be prieſted.1610, Alexander Cooke, “Pope Joane”, in William Oldys, editor, The Harleian Miscellany: […], volume IV, London: T[homas] Osborne, […]...
- With the help of a sleepy waiter, Little Billee got the bacchanalian into his room and lit his candle for him, and, disengaging himself from his maudlin embraces, left him to wallow in solitude.1894, George du Maurier, “Part Third”, in Trilby: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 165:
Synonyms of wallow
Forms of wallow
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | wallows |
| present participle | wallowing |
| past participle | wallowed |
| past | wallowed |
| alternative pronunciation-spelling | waller |
| Noun | |
| plural | wallows |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more wallow |
| superlative | most wallow |
Origin of wallow
From Middle English walowen, walewen, walwen, welwen, from Old English wealwian (“to roll”), from Proto-West Germanic *walwōn, variant of *walwijan, from Proto-Germanic *walwijaną (“to roll”), from Proto-Indo-European *welw-, from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, wind, roll”). Cognate with Latin volvō (“roll, tumble”, verb).
From Middle English walwen, from Old English wealwian (“to fade, wither”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps an alteration of Old English fealwian (“to grow pale, turn yellow, ripen, wither”). Alternatively, perhaps related to Middle English welken (“to fade, droop, wither”), modern English welk.
From Middle English walwe, walh, from Old English wealg, from Proto-West Germanic *walg, from Proto-Germanic *walgaz. Cognate with Dutch walg (“disgust”), dialectal Norwegian valg (“tasteless”). Doublet of waugh.
Words formed from wallow
Phrases with wallow
Words that rhyme with wallow
Questions about wallow
- What does wallow mean?
- Wallow means to roll oneself about in something dirty, for example in mud.
- What is wallow in Tamil?
- Wallow in Tamil is மண்ணில் அல்லது சேற்றில் புரள், உருளு, திக்கு. See Wallow meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use wallow in a sentence?
- Make ye him drunken: for hee magnified himselfe against the Lord: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shalbe in derision.
- What part of speech is wallow?
- Wallow can be a verb, a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce wallow?
- Wallow is pronounced /ˈwɒ.ləʊ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of wallow?
- The past tense of wallow is wallowed.
Words near wallow in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wallow (page history and authors); wallow (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wallow (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); പുരളുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-wallow.wav.
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