welt

Meanings

Verb

• To roll; revolve
• To cause to have welts; to beat.
• To install welt (a welt or welts) to reinforce.
• To decay.
• To become stringy.

Noun

• A ridge or lump on the skin, as caused by a blow; a wheal or weal.
• A strip of leather set into the seam between the outsole of a shoe and the upper, through which these parts are joined by stitching or stapling.
• A strip of material or covered cord applied to a seam or garment edge to strengthen or cover it.
• In steam boilers and sheet-iron work, a strip riveted upon the edges of plates that form a butt joint.
• In carpentry, a strip of wood fastened over a flush seam or joint, or an angle, to strengthen it.
• In machine-made stockings, a strip, or flap, of which the heel is formed.
• A narrow border, as of an ordinary, but not extending around the ends.
• A feature resembling a welt.

Origin

• From Middle English welten, from Old English weltan, wieltan, from Proto-Germanic *waltijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wel-. Cognate with German wälzen, Danish vælte, Swedish välta, Icelandic velta.
• Circa 1425, a shoemaker's term. Perhaps related to Middle English welten, from Old Norse velta. Meaning "ridge on the skin from a wound" first recorded 1800.