welcome

Adjective

welcome (comparative welcomer, superlative welcomest)

1. Whose arrival is a cause of joy; received with gladness; admitted willingly to the house, entertainment, or company.
   • a welcome visitor
   • Refugees are welcome in our city!
2. Producing gladness.
   • a welcome turn of events; welcome news
   • “A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. […]”1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
3. Followed by to: free to have or enjoy gratuitously.
   • You are welcome to the use of my library.
   • As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish, but I would not go out of my way to protest against it. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get. I would very gladly make mine over to him if I could.1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC

Interjection

1. Greeting given upon someone's arrival.
   • Welcome to the life of Electra Heart!

Noun

welcome (plural welcomes)

1. The act of greeting someone’s arrival, especially by saying "Welcome!"; reception.
2. The utterance of such a greeting.
3. Kind reception of a guest or newcomer.
   • We entered the house and found a ready welcome.
   • Truth finds an entrance and a welcome too.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
4. The state of being a welcome guest; a feeling of one's presence and comfort being desired.
   • The townspeople crossed freely from bank to bank, and it stayed that way until breakup in March or April or, in years when winter outstayed its welcome, maybe even May.1992, Dana Stabenow, A Cold Day for Murder, →ISBN, page 42

Verb

welcome (third-person singular simple present welcomes, present participle welcoming, simple past and past participle welcomed)

1. To affirm or greet the arrival of someone, especially by saying "Welcome!".
   • But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,[…]. By the time we reached the house we were thanking our stars she had come. Mrs. Cooke came out from under the port-cochere to welcome her.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
   • Finnley is the fourth daughter of Jason and Kylie Kelce, having already welcomed Wyatt, Elliotte and Bennett to the family.2025 April 2, Ben Morse, “‘Whoop, there she is!’: Jason and Kylie Kelce announce birth of fourth daughter”, in CNN
2. To accept something willingly or gladly.
   • We welcome suggestions for improvement.
   • CPS MerseyCheshire welcomes the jailing of Helen Dove who conned her friend into giving up her job for a dream post that never existed. Kimberley McDonnell lost around £50,000 because of the fraudster.2020 January 29, “Woman jailed for conning her friend into giving up her job for a dream post that never existed”, in CPS Mersey-Cheshire, London: Crown Prosecution Service, retrieved 02 Apr 2020

Proper noun capitalized: Welcome

Welcome (plural Welcomes)

1. A surname.