Word.ws English Dictionary

whelpy

whelpy adjective: like or relating to a whelp (cub or puppy).

Adjective (1)

whelpy (comparative whelpier or more whelpy, superlative whelpiest or most whelpy)

  1. Like or relating to a whelp (cub or puppy).
    • A small, whelpy moan escaped from her, embarrassing her.2015, Celine Keating, Play for Me
    • I was so nervous as I tried to hand-feed him, mixing up his whelpy drink, which has all the nutrients he would get from his mum if he were still nursing, and then trying him on slushy solid foods.2017, Andrea Hayes, Dog Tales

Adjective (2)

whelpy (comparative whelpier or more whelpy, superlative whelpiest or most whelpy)

  1. Festering or having welts or wheals; attery, purulent.
    • […] the way from his breakfast room to Grandmomma's back door but as silverware and a garden spade and whelpy bee bites had not figured into his speculations […]1988, T. R. Pearson, The Last of how it was, page 48
    • Stunning, worst comes to worst Springer'll bind off his whelpy first draft that way.1999, David Markson, Springer's Progress, page 212

Examples of whelpy in a sentence

  • Also, she has a bright red, whelpy-looking rash on her upper chest around her neck.2007, John Breed, Bethany Breed Martin, Mac a Book of Hope, page 29:
  • […] In a letter marked January 29, 1640, Descartes debated the reality of this post-rabies-whelpy-discharge, […]2020, Leslie C. Dunn, Performing Disability in Early Modern English Drama, page 174:

Forms of whelpy

comparativewhelpier
comparativemore whelpy
superlativewhelpiest
superlativemost whelpy

Origin of whelpy

From whelp + -y.

Origin uncertain. Perhaps an alteration of welt + -y; or from dialectal English whelpy meaning "sour, rancid".

Questions about whelpy

What does whelpy mean?
Whelpy means like or relating to a whelp (cub or puppy).
How do you use whelpy in a sentence?
Also, she has a bright red, whelpy-looking rash on her upper chest around her neck.
What part of speech is whelpy?
Whelpy is an adjective.

Words near whelpy in the dictionary

  1. Whelpley
  2. Whelpleys
  3. whelpling
  4. whelplings
  5. whelps
  6. whelpy
  7. Whelton
  8. Wheltons
  9. whemmel
  10. whemmeled
  11. whemmeling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whelpy (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “whelpy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whelpy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.