whelp
English
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whelp¹
- /wɛlp/
- /ʍɛlp/
Sounds like welp (wine–whine merger) · Rhymes with -ɛlp
Where it comes from
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.
noun whelps
- 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.
- An insolent youth; a mere child. That awkward whelp with his money bags would have made his entrance.
- A kind of ship.
- One of several wooden strips to prevent wear on a windlass on a clipper-era ship.
- A tooth on a sprocket wheel (compare sprocket and cog).
whelp²
Where it comes from
From Middle English whelpen, from Old English hwelpian, derived from hwelp.
verb whelps · whelping · whelped
- To give birth. The bitch whelped.
whelp³
Where it comes from
Variant of welp.
interjection
- Alternative form of welp (“well”).
Translations
Talk about this word "whelp." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/whelp. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. whelp. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/whelp "whelp." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/whelp.Cite this
@misc{whelp_2026,
title = {whelp},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/whelp},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
