welter
1 Americanverb (used without object)
-
welters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
weltered,
past participle, past
-
weltering
present participle
-
to roll, toss, or heave, as waves or the sea.
-
to roll, writhe, or tumble about; wallow, as animals (often followed byabout ).
pigs weltering about happily in the mud.
-
to lie bathed in or be drenched in something, especially blood.
-
to become deeply or extensively involved, associated, entangled, etc..
to welter in setbacks, confusion, and despair.
noun
-
a confused mass; a jumble or muddle.
a welter of anxious faces.
-
a state of commotion, turmoil, or upheaval.
the welter that followed the surprise attack.
-
a rolling, tossing, or tumbling about, as or as if by the sea, waves, or wind.
They found the shore through the mighty welter.
noun
adjective
verb
-
to roll about, writhe, or wallow
-
(esp of the sea) to surge, heave, or toss
-
to lie drenched in a liquid, esp blood
noun
-
a rolling motion, as of the sea
-
a confused mass; jumble
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
weltersimple
-
welterssimple
-
have welteredperfect
-
has welteredperfect
-
am welteringprogressive
-
are welteringprogressive
-
is welteringprogressive
-
have been welteringperfect progressive
-
has been welteringperfect progressive
Past
-
welteredsimple
-
had welteredperfect
-
was welteringprogressive
-
were welteringprogressive
-
had been welteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of welter1
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English welteren, welten “tumble, fall over; writhe,” Old English wiltan, weltan “roll”; cognate with Middle Dutch welteren, Low German weltern “to roll”
Origin of welter2
First recorded in 1785–95; of uncertain origin; perhaps from welt in the sense “to beat soundly” + -er 1, or welter 1 in the sense “a rolling or tossing about”
Explanation
Use the noun welter to describe an enormous, messy pile, like the jumble of papers, coffee mugs, pens, and food wrappers on the desk of the messiest person in the office. Welter can also be a verb — the items in the pile on the messy desk welter every time someone tries to pull something out. This means they roll and get tossed around. Maybe the person isn't as messy as you think. Possibly his projects keep him so weltered — meaning "deeply involved" — that he doesn't have the time or energy to deal with the mess.
Vocabulary lists containing welter
Fahrenheit 451
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
A Long Walk to Water
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Oedipus the King
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In the sweep and welter of its subject matter—dogma, history, fact, law, justice, anecdote, theory, prophecy—it almost suggests the Bible.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Amid a welter of rumours, the general staff was forced to deny reports that Gen Syrskyi was about to be – or even had already been – sacked.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
But the 2014 YouTube video set off a welter of “fire noodle challenges” around the world, launching Buldak into viral fame.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2024
Among a welter of preliminary deals was an actual contract between Seoul’s state-run Korea National Oil Corp. and Saudi Arabia’s state-run energy giant Saudi Aramco.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 26, 2023
The aim is to confuse the male moth and alter the normal behavior so that, in the welter of attractive scents, he cannot find the true scent trail leading to the female.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Intimations of jazz, Balinese gamelan, African drumming and Japanese music floated from welters of rapid passagework.
From New York Times ● Jan. 8, 2010
Carole Bolsey’s paintings are welters of vivid hues from which recognizable forms — boats, a horse — emerge.
From Washington Post
Blind lake of Sansculottism welters stagnant through the King's Chateau, for the space of three hours.
From The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
Such lava welters redhot in the bowels of this Mountain; unknown to the world and to itself!
From The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
Dear George! at first he just couldn't abide cats; but now, why now he's just all for cats; he fairly welters in cats.
From The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories by Mark Twain
One year ago, on "the tenth day of the tenth month," there was a relatively stable northern Government at Peking, and the southern Government at Canton weltered in the doldrums of impotence.
From Time Magazine Archive
For 48 hours the West weltered in the confusion of factlessness: the air waves and the news columns were splashed with words like "purge" and "shake-up."
From Time Magazine Archive
With each successive year since the fall of the Empire, China has weltered ever deeper in the morass of civil war.
From Time Magazine Archive
The crowded hurry and the dirty creatures that attend commercial greed and selfish enjoyment in cities everywhere weltered along the sidewalks and unhesitatingly plunged into the mud of the streets.
From Memories of Hawthorne by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop
The placid clay had returned to an old allegiance, and weltered with the tide according to the joint ordering of earth and moon.
From The Unknown Sea by Clemence Housman
The echo, here, is of “Citizen Kane,” where the camera cranes over a rooftop and down through a skylight, in a weltering storm.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 19, 2015
Some people ride out their lives weltering in a vivid spiritual experience regarding which they scarcely ever speak.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2015
Spain was weltering last week in a revolution which experts had to certify as absolutely Grade A. Its authentic qualities of mass upheaval reduced to secondary stature both the government leaders and the revolutionary generals.
From Time Magazine Archive
Wife At Nantasket Beach, Mass., a bather thought he saw his wife weltering in the surf, frantically summoned lifeguards, who plunged in, rescued a beer keg.
From Time Magazine Archive
Europe, weltering in her own failure, had turned towards us a wistful look.
From The Pentecost of Calamity by Owen Wister
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
