Word.ws English Dictionary

waulk

waulk verb: to make cloth (especially tweed in Scotland) denser and more felt-like by soaking and beating.

Verb

waulk (third-person singular simple present waulks, present participle waulking, simple past and past participle waulked)

  1. (transitive, obsolete outside Northern England and Scotland) to make cloth (especially tweed in Scotland) denser and more felt-like by soaking and beating.
    • The frame on which the cloth is waulked is a board some twelve to twenty-four feet long and about two feet broad, grooved lengthwise along its surface.1900, Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, volume 1, page 310
    • I hid a smile at the mention of wool waulking. Alone among the Highland farms, I was sure, the women of Lailybroch waulked their wool not only to the old traditional chants but also to the rhythms of Moliére and Piron.1992, Diana Gabaldon, Dragonfly in Amber, Random House Group (Arrow Books), page 590
    Synonyms:
    full, walk

Synonyms of waulk

Forms of waulk

third-person singular presentwaulks
present participlewaulking
past participlewaulked
pastwaulked

Origin of waulk

From Middle English walken, from Old English wealcian (“to roll up; muffle up”), from Proto-West Germanic *walkōn, from Proto-Germanic *walkōną (“to roll about; full (cloth)”). Cognate with Scots waulk (“to full”), Dutch walken (“to full”), German walken (“to full”), Danish valke (“to full”), Swedish valka (“to full”). Doublet of walk.

Words formed from waulk

Questions about waulk

What does waulk mean?
Waulk means to make cloth (especially tweed in Scotland) denser and more felt-like by soaking and beating.
What part of speech is waulk?
Waulk is a verb.
What is the past tense of waulk?
The past tense of waulk is waulked.

Words near waulk in the dictionary

  1. wauks
  2. waul
  3. wauled
  4. wauling
  5. waulings
  6. waulk
  7. waulked
  8. waulker
  9. waulkers
  10. waulking
  11. waulkings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: waulk (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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