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welsh - 8 dictionary results
welsh
[welsh, welch] 
–verb (used without object) Informal: Sometimes Offensive.
| 1. | to cheat by failing to pay a gambling debt: You aren't going to welsh on me, are you? |
| 2. | to go back on one's word: He welshed on his promise to help in the campaign. |
Welsh
[welsh, welch] –adjective
| 1. | of or pertaining to Wales, its people, or their language. |
Also, Welch.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME Welische, OE Welisc, deriv. of Walh Briton, foreigner (cf. L Volcae a Gallic tribe); c. G welsch foreign, Italian
bef. 900; ME Welische, OE Welisc, deriv. of Walh Briton, foreigner (cf. L Volcae a Gallic tribe); c. G welsch foreign, Italian
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To welsh
| welsh (wělsh, wělch) intr.v. welshed also welched, welsh·ing also welch·ing, welsh·es also welch·es Informal
[Origin unknown.] welsh'er n. |
| Welsh (wělsh, wělch) adj. Of or relating to Wales or its people, language, or culture. n.
[Middle English Walische, from Old English Wælisc, from Wealh, foreigner, Welshman, Celt, perhaps of Celtic origin.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Welsh
Welsh\, v. t. & i. (a) To cheat by avoiding payment of bets; -- said esp. of an absconding bookmaker at a race track. [Slang] (b) To avoid dishonorably the fulfillment of a pecuniary obligation. [Slang]Welsh
Welsh\, a. [AS. w[ae]lisc, welisc, from wealh a stranger, foreigner, not of Saxon origin, a Welshman, a Celt, Gael; akin to OHG. walh, whence G. w["a]lsch or welsch, Celtic, Welsh, Italian, French, Foreign, strange, OHG. walhisc; from the name of a Celtic tribe. See Walnut.] Of or pertaining to Wales, or its inhabitants. [Sometimes written also Welch.] Welsh flannel, a fine kind of flannel made from the fleece of the flocks of the Welsh mountains, and largely manufactured by hand. Welsh glaive, or Welsh hook, a weapon of war used in former times by the Welsh, commonly regarded as a kind of poleax. --Fairholt. --Craig. Welsh mortgage (O. Eng. Law), a species of mortgage, being a conveyance of an estate, redeemable at any time on payment of the principal, with an understanding that the profits in the mean time shall be received by the mortgagee without account, in satisfaction of interest. --Burrill. Welsh mutton, a choice and delicate kind of mutton obtained from a breed of small sheep in Wales. Welsh onion (Bot.), a kind of onion (Allium fistulosum) having hollow inflated stalks and leaves, but scarcely any bulb, a native of Siberia. It is said to have been introduced from Germany, and is supposed to have derived its name from the German term w["a]lsch foreign. Welsh parsley, hemp, or halters made from hemp. [Obs. & Jocular] --J. Fletcher. Welsh rabbit. See under Rabbit.Welsh
Welsh\, n. 1. The language of Wales, or of the Welsh people. 2. pl. The natives or inhabitants of Wales. Note: The Welsh call themselves Cymry, in the plural, and a Welshman Cymro, and their country Cymru, of which the adjective is Cymreig, and the name of their language Cymraeg. They are a branch of the Celtic family, and a relic of the earliest known population of England, driven into the mountains of Wales by the Anglo-Saxon invaders.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Welsh
O.E. Wilisc, Wylisc (W.Saxon), Welisc, Wælisc (Anglian and Kentish), from Wealh, Walh "Celt, Briton, Welshman, non-Germanic foreigner;" in Tolkien's definition, "common Gmc. name for a man of what we should call Celtic speech," but also applied to speakers of Latin, hence O.H.G. Walh, Walah "Celt, Roman, Gaulish," and O.N. Valir "Gauls, Frenchmen" (Dan. vælsk "Italian, French, southern"); from P.Gmc. *Walkhiskaz, from a Celtic name represented by L. Volcæ (Caesar) "ancient Celtic tribe in southern Gaul." The word survives in Wales, Cornwall, Walloon, walnut, and in surnames Walsh and Wallace. Borrowed in O.C.S. as vlachu, and applied to Romanians, hence Walachia. Among the English, Welsh was used disparagingly of inferior or substitute things, hence Welsh rabbit (1725), also perverted by folk-etymology as Welsh rarebit (1785).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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