Meanings
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
Thesaurus
Common collocations
The metalworking verb, recorded in the late sixteenth century, is an alteration of obsolete well, 'to boil or bubble,' from Middle English wellen; the figurative union sense followed. The dye-plant noun is an unrelated older word from Old English *wealde, possibly connected with wald, 'forest.'