Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A strip, as of leather or other material, stitched into a shoe between the sole and the upper.
  • noun A tape or covered cord sewn into a seam as reinforcement or trimming.
  • noun A ridge or bump on the skin caused by a lash or blow or sometimes by an allergic reaction.
  • noun A lash or blow producing such a mark.
  • transitive verb To reinforce or trim with a welt.
  • transitive verb To beat severely; flog.
  • transitive verb To raise welts or a welt on.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To roll; revolve.
  • noun An applied hem, selvage, bordering, or fringe; especially, a strengthening or ornamenting strip of material fastened along an edge, or over or between two joined edges, often forming a rounded ridge by the insertion of a cord or the doubling outward of the material.
  • noun Specifically— In a heraldic achievement, a narrow border to an ordinary or charge.
  • noun A strip of material sewed round or along an open edge, as of a glove.
  • noun A strip of leather in a boot or shoe sewed round the edge of the conjoined upper leather and inner sole, preparatory to the attachment of the bottom or outer sole. See cut under boot.
  • noun In carpentry, a strip forming an additional thickness laid over a flush seam or joint, or placed in an angle, to strengthen it, as in a carvel-built vessel.
  • noun In sheet-iron work, a strip riveted to two contiguous plates forming a butt-joint.
  • noun In knitting:
  • noun One of the ribs at an end of the work, intended to prevent it from rolling up, as around the opening or top of a sock.
  • noun A separate flap, as a heel-piece, on any piece of work made in a knitting-machine. It is made independently of the work, and afterward knitted on.
  • noun Hence A low superficial ridge or linear swelling, as on the skin; a weal or wale: as, to raise welts on a person or an animal by blows with a whip. See welt, v. t, 2.
  • To fix a welt or welts to or in; furnish or ornament with any thing called a welt: as, to welt shoes.
  • To beat severely with a whip or stick, where by welts may be raised. See welt, n., 2.
  • To wilt; wither; become soft or flabby, as from decay; become ropy or stringy, as some liquors.
  • Preterit of walt.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete, obsolete That which, being sewed or otherwise fastened to an edge or border, serves to guard, strengthen, or adorn it.
  • noun obsolete, obsolete A small cord covered with cloth and sewed on a seam or border to strengthen it; an edge of cloth folded on itself, usually over a cord, and sewed down.
  • noun obsolete A hem, border, or fringe.
  • noun In shoemaking, a narrow strip of leather around a shoe, between the upper leather and sole.
  • noun In steam boilers and sheet-iron work, a strip riveted upon the edges of plates that form a butt joint.
  • noun In carpentry, a strip of wood fastened over a flush seam or joint, or an angle, to strengthen it.
  • noun In machine-made stockings, a strip, or flap, of which the heel is formed.
  • noun (Her.) A narrow border, as of an ordinary, but not extending around the ends.
  • noun A raised ridge on the surface of the skin, produced by a blow, as from a stick or whip; a wale; a weal.
  • noun A blow that produces a welt{3}.
  • noun a joint, as of plates, made with a welt, instead of by overlapping the edges. See Weld, n., 1 (d).
  • transitive verb rare To wilt.
  • transitive verb To furnish with a welt; to sew or fasten a welt on.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A raised mark on the body caused by a blow; a wheal or weal.
  • noun shoemaking 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.
  • noun A strip of material or covered cord applied to a seam or garment edge to strengthen or cover it.
  • verb To cause to have welts, to beat.
  • verb To install welt (a welt or welts) to reinforce.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb beat severely with a whip or rod
  • noun a raised or strengthened seam
  • noun a raised mark on the skin (as produced by the blow of a whip); characteristic of many allergic reactions
  • verb put a welt on

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English welte.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

c.1425, a shoemaker's term. Perhaps related to Middle English welten ("to overturn, roll over"), from Old Norse velta ("to roll"). Meaning "ridge on the skin from a wound" first recorded 1800.

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Examples

  • The welt is gone, there is no more bulge from either infection or gauze.

    PvPonline » Archive » Three words: Finish your meds 2008

  • The welt is gone, there is no more bulge from either infection or gauze.

    PvPonline » 2008 » May » 16 2008

  • He faces second-degree felony charges of shooting or throwing a deadly missileThe victim received a welt from the plastic pellet and is fine.

    Archive 2007-02-01 2007

  • A welt is a narrow strip of leather which is sewed to the lower edge of the upper all the way around the shoe except at the heel.

    Makers of Many Things Eva March Tappan 1892

  • B % So So eminent a mark of diftin&ion, derived from the moft refpe£ial? le City in Europe, and to which fo few have ever received the honour of admiffign, cannot but fill my heart with the higheft fenfe of gtetitude and regard; and though it far exceeds the bare merit of meaning welt, which is all I have to plead, muft prove a ftrong incentive to thofe, whom h\9 Majcfty fhail hereafter think fit to employ, to fexert jwith equal zeal* much greater abilities in the fef vice of their country.

    Anecdotes of the Life of the Right Hon. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and of the Principle ... 1797

  • The word 'welt', which the Germans make use of at the present day, and which was 'weralt' in old German, 'worold' in old Saxon, and 'weruld' in Anglo-Saxon, was, according to James Grimm's interpretation,

    COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 Alexander von Humboldt 1814

  • Yankees' Dickerson OK After Beaning Chris Dickerson of the Yankees has a line on his nose and a welt on his cheek from where the batting helmet hit him, but otherwise bears no scars from taking a fastball from the Orioles' Mike Gonzalez off his head Wednesday night.

    St. John's-Kentucky to Showcase Frosh 2011

  • You are just hit by an awful need to scratch and a large welt.

    biting insects 2009

  • You are just hit by an awful need to scratch and a large welt.

    biting insects 2009

  • The escaping gases left a long red welt on her cheek.

    Gideon’s war Howard Gordon 2011

  • Goodyear welt construction means the welt–the strip running along the outer perimeter of the sole–is stitched to the shoe in a particular manner.

    Millennials love classic brands because they’re desperate for security The A.V. Club 2022

Comments

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  • "In amazon costume, hard hat, jackboots cockspurred, vermilion waistcoat, fawn musketeer gauntlets with braided drums, long train held up and hunting crop with which she strikes her welt constantly."

    Joyce, Ulysses, 15

    February 8, 2007

  • A stocking top is called a welt.

    December 5, 2007