whelp
verbEtymology From Middle English whelpen, from Old English hwelpian, derived from hwelp.
1
Ambitransitive, Usually, Of she-dog To give birth.
- The bitch whelped.
- The she-wolf whelped a large litter of cubs.
whelp
noun/wɛlp/ · /ʍɛlp/
Etymology From Middle English whelp, from Old English hwelp, from Proto-West Germanic *hwelp, from Proto-Germanic *hwelpaz (compare Dutch welp, German Welpe, Welfe, Old Norse hvelpr, Norwegian Nynorsk kvelp, Danish hvalp), from pre-Germanic *kʷelbos, of uncertain origin.
1
A young offspring of a various carnivores (canid, ursid, felid, pinniped), especially of a dog or a wolf, the young of a bear or similar mammal (lion, tiger, seal); a pup, wolf cub.
- […]And fared like a furious wyld Beare, / Whose whelpes are ſtolne away, ſhe being otherwhere.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Pro. […]Then was this Iſland / (Saue for the Son, that he^([sic]) did littour heere, / A frekelld whelpe, hag-borne) not honour'd with / A humane ſhape.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4:
2
Derogatory An insolent youth; a mere child.
- July 13, 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian That awkward whelp with his money bags would have made his entrance.
- October 22, 2011, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "Luna Eclipsed" Thy backside is whole and ungobbled, thou ungrateful whelp!
3
Obsolete A kind of ship.
4
One of several wooden strips to prevent wear on a windlass on a clipper-era ship.
5
A tooth on a sprocket wheel (compare sprocket and cog).
- Derived terms
- bear-whelp, fox whelp, fox-whelp, fox's whelp, whelpie, whelping ice, whelpling, whelpy, wolf whelp, wolf-whelp, wolf's whelp
- Related terms
- Guelph