whelked, welked, ppl. a.
(hwɛlkt, wɛlkt)
Also 7 welkt, welk't, wealked.
[f. whelk1 + -ed2.]
1. Formed like a whelk; twisted, convoluted, or ridged like the shell of a whelk.
| a 1560 T. Phaer æneid x. (1562) Gg j b, Him Triton combrous bare that galeon blew w{supt} whelkid shell [orig. concha]. 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. v. 61 b, With crooked welked [orig. recurvis] hornes that inward still doe terue. 1605 Shakes. Lear iv. vi. 71 Hornes wealk'd [Qos. welkt, welk't], and waued like the enraged [Qos. enridged] Sea. 1627 [R. Niccols] Beggers Ape A 4, He with..shaggy beard And welked hornes so Satir-like appeard. 1876 A. S. Palmer Leaves Word-Hunter's Note-Bk. iv. 73 Look up at its [sc. the tree's] towering expanse of branches, observe its whelked and furrowed bole. |
2. Marked with ridges on the flesh, waled, wealed: cf. whelk2 2. (Sometimes as pa. pple. of an assumed verb *welk: see also below.)
| 1727 Gay Fables i. xliv, The smacking lash he smartly plies; His ribs all welk'd, with howling tone The puppy thus exprest his moan. 1812 W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XXXIV. 235 Stripes from the fiend attain her heart, And the whelk'd bosom scar. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xxii, The labour of their welked hands. 1829 ― Anne of G. xxx, My hand has been too much welk'd and hardened by practice of the bow. |
¶ In the following Scott uses welk as an intr. verb (? = rise in ridges) in the collocation welk and wave based on a misunderstanding of Shakes. Lear iv. vi. 71, which he echoes directly in quot. 1827.
| 1821 Scott Pirate ii, The..boatmen saw the horns of the monstrous leviathan welking and waving amidst wreaths of mist. 1827 ― Napoleon I. viii. 331 Looking out upon the tumultuary sea of pikes, agitated by the fifty thousand hands, as they rose and sunk, welked and waved. |