welkin

[wel-kin]

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noun Chiefly Literary.

the sky; the vault of heaven.

Origin of welkin

before 900; Middle English welken(e), Old English welcn, variant of wolcen cloud, sky; cognate with German Wolke cloud

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for welkin

firmament, heaven, blast, whiff, sky, waft, breath, breeze, draft, puff, wind, ozone, zephyr, ventilation, stratosphere, troposphere, heavens

Examples from the Web for welkin

Historical Examples of welkin

All right, then; that letter I wrote is a shirt, and the welkin's the ruffle on it.
Tom Sawyer Abroad
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
I really had the facts from Welkin, who had them from his wife.
Quaint Courtships
Various
I wish you and mother could have seen the view on the top of Welkin Beacon.
Follow My leader
Talbot Baines Reed
"It's the writing of that fellow Welkin," said Smythe gruffly.
The Innocence of Father Brown
G. K. Chesterton
First, there was the fact that this Welkin went for long walks.
The Innocence of Father Brown
G. K. Chesterton

British Dictionary definitions for welkin

welkin

noun

archaic the sky, heavens, or upper air

Word Origin for welkin

Old English wolcen, welcen; related to Old Frisian wolken, Old Saxon, Old High German wolcan

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for welkin

"sky" (poetic), Old English wolcen "cloud," from Proto-Germanic *welk- (cf. Old Saxon wolkan, Old Frisian wolken, Middle Dutch wolke, Dutch wolk, Old High German wolka, German Wolke "cloud," from PIE *welgh- "wet" (cf. Lithuanian vilgyti "to moisten," Old Church Slavonic viaga "moisture," Czech vlhky "damp").