welly

noun, adv — 5 senses

welly

noun

/ˈwɛli/

Etymology Clipping of Wellington boot + -y.

1

Informal Wellington boot.

Dad has great big welly boots. For squishing in the mud; Two great big black welly boots: Thud, thud, thud.2009, Verse for Ages:

2

Informal Force on a pedal or increase to any fuel or power for an engine or motor.

3

Informal Force or effort.

Come on! Put some welly into it!

Derived terms: welly whanging, give it some welly, green welly brigade, green-welly, welly it

welly

adv

Etymology From welne, a dialectal variant of well-nigh.

1

Ireland, UK, Dialectal, Obsolete Almost; nearly.

A person exceedingly hungry says, "I'm welly clem'd; I'm almost or well-nigh starved." It is the ordinary appeal of a beggar in the streets, when asking for food.1853, Notes & Queries, volume 8, page 64:

welly

adv

1

very.

In representations of Chinese pronunciation

The real thrill comes to the investigator when, convinced that he is no mere casual diner, the waiter grins broadly and says, "You don't worry. I get you something welly nice."1928 October 13, The Argus, Melbourne, page 2, column 7:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.