Word.ws English Dictionary

welk

/wɛlk/

welk verb: of a plant: to wither, wilt, decay. Also the alternative form of whelk.

Verb

welk (third-person singular simple present welks, present participle welking, simple past and past participle welked)

  1. (obsolete) Of a plant: to wither, wilt, decay.
  2. (obsolete) To diminish; to lose brightness, to wane.
    • As gentle Shepheard in ſweete euentide, / When ruddy Phebus gins to welke in weſt, [...]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 23, page 9
    • [T]he Church that before by inſenſible degrees welk'd and impair'd, now with large ſteps went down hill decaying; [...]1641 May, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Causes that hitherto have Hindred it. […], [London]: […] Thomas Vnderhill, →OCLC...
  3. (dialectal) to soak, steep.
  4. (dialectal) to thrash, beat severely.
  5. To contract; to shorten.
    • But nowe ſadde Winter welked hath the day, / And Phœbus weary of his yerely taſ-ke: / Yſtabled hath his ſteedes in lowlye laye / And taken vp his ynne in Fiſhes haſ-ke.1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Nouember. Ægloga Vndecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 44, verso
  6. (transitive) To form into wrinkles or ridges.

Proper noun capitalized: Welk

Welk (plural Welks)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

welk is also the alternative form of whelk.

Forms of welk

Verb
third-person singular presentwelks
present participlewelking
past participlewelked
pastwelked
Noun
pluralwelks
Proper noun
pluralWelks

Origin of welk

From Middle English welken, probably from a continental Germanic language; compare Middle Dutch welken (Dutch welken) and Middle Low German welken. Cognate with German welken. Ultimately, from Proto-West Germanic *wilkijan (“to become soft”), from Proto-Germanic *welkaz (“soft, withered”), according to Kluge, related to *wulkną (“cloud”). Compare also Old English wealwian (“to fade, wither”), Old English wlacu (“tepid, lukewarm”).

* As a German surname, variant of Welge, from Middle Low German welich (“lively, luxuriant”), from Old Saxon welag, from Proto-West Germanic *welag; also as a variant of Welsch. * Also as a German surname, from archaic Middle High German welc (“mild, soft”), from the root of the verb welken (“to wither”). * As a Lower Sorbian surname, from wjelk (“wolf”). * Also as a Sorbian surname, from the personal name Welimir, from Proto-Slavic *velь (“great”).

Words that rhyme with welk

Questions about welk

What does welk mean?
Welk means of a plant: to wither, wilt, decay.
What part of speech is welk?
Welk can be a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce welk?
Welk is pronounced /wɛlk/.
What is the past tense of welk?
The past tense of welk is welked.

Words near welk in the dictionary

  1. Welford-on-Avon
  2. Welfords
  3. Welham
  4. Welham Green
  5. welinite
  6. welk
  7. Welke
  8. welked
  9. Welker
  10. Welkers
  11. Welkes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: welk (page history and authors); Welk (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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