Adjacent Words

Weal definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

WEAL, n. [G., L., to be strong, to avail, to prevail. The primary sense of weal is strength, soundness, from the sense of straining, stretching or advancing.]
1. A sound state of a person or thing; a state which is prosperous, or at least not unfortunate, not declining; prosperity; happiness.
As we love the weal of our souls and bodies.
The weal or wo in thee is placd.
So we say, the public weal, the general weal, the weal of the nation or state.
2. Republic; state; public interest. [But we now use commonwealth, in the sense of state.]
WEAL, n. The mark of a stripe. [See Wale.] Weald, wald, walt, wold, in Saxon and other Teutonic dialects, signifies a wood or forest. It is found in names, as in Walt-ham, wood-house; corruptly pronounced Waltham.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a raised mark on the skin (as produced by the blow of a whip); characteristic of many allergic reactions [syn: wale, welt, weal, wheal]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English wele, from Old English wela; akin to Old English wel well Date: before 12th century 1. a sound, healthy, or prosperous state ; well-being 2. obsolete body politic, commonweal II. noun Etymology: alteration of wale Date: circa 1798 welt

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. & v. --n. a ridge raised on the flesh by a stroke of a rod or whip. --v.tr. mark with a weal. Etymology: var. of WALE, infl. by obs. wheal suppurate 2. n. literary welfare, prosperity; good fortune. Etymology: OE wela f. WG (as WELL(1))

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Weal Weal, n. The mark of a stripe. See Wale.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Weal Weal, v. t. To mark with stripes. See Wale.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Weal Weal, n. [OE. wele, AS. wela, weola, wealth, from wel well. See Well, adv., and cf. Wealth.] 1. A sound, healthy, or prosperous state of a person or thing; prosperity; happiness; welfare. God . . . grant you wele and prosperity. --Chaucer. As we love the weal of our souls and bodies. --Bacon. To him linked in weal or woe. --Milton. Never was there a time when it more concerned the public weal that the character of the Parliament should stand high. --Macaulay. 2. The body politic; the state; common wealth. [Obs.] The special watchmen of our English weal. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Weal Weal, v. t. To promote the weal of; to cause to be prosperous. [Obs.] --Beau. & Fl.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(weals) A weal is a swelling made on someone's skin by a blow, especially from something sharp or thin such as a sword or whip. (BRIT; in AM, use welt) = welt N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Welfare, prosperity, good, advantage, happiness, interest, utility, profit.

Moby Thesaurus

Easy Street, affluence, bed of roses, birthmark, blackhead, bleb, blemish, blister, bulla, check, cicatrix, clover, comedo, comfort, crack, crater, craze, defacement, defect, deformation, deformity, disfiguration, disfigurement, distortion, ease, easy circumstances, fault, felicity, flaw, fleshpots, freckle, gracious life, gracious living, happiness, hemangioma, hickey, keloid, kink, lap of luxury, lentigo, life of ease, loaves and fishes, luxury, milium, mole, needle scar, nevus, pimple, pit, pock, pockmark, port-wine mark, port-wine stain, prosperity, prosperousness, pustule, rift, scab, scar, scratch, sebaceous cyst, security, split, strawberry mark, sty, success, the affluent life, the good life, thriving condition, track, twist, upward mobility, velvet, verruca, vesicle, wale, warp, wart, wealth, welfare, well-being, welt, wen, whelk, whelp, whitehead