Etymology 2
Circa 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.
Noun
welt (plural welts)
- A ridge or lump on the skin, as caused by a blow.
- Synonyms: wheal, weal
1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter XX, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume II, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC:When she saw, on the back and shoulders of the child, great welts and calloused spots, ineffaceable marks of the system under which she had grown up thus far, her heart became pitiful within her.
1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VII, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:[…] I am sure of one thing—scars are plenty enough in Germany, among the young men; and very grim ones they are, too. They crisscross the face in angry red welts, and are permanent and ineffaceable.
- (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.
- (obsolete, shoemaking) A shoe made with a welt.
1912, The Register of the Lynn Historical Society:Previous to the fifties, most of the shoes made were welts, or spring heels, and later most of the work changed to turns or "runrounds" as they were called.
1981, Paul Gustaf Faler, Mechanics and Manufacturers in the Early Industrial Revolution, page 91:Nathan D. Chase, a well-to-do boss who accumulated enough wealth to retire in 1850 at middle age, observed that the prices for making shoes remained low from 1837 to 1842: 4 cents for red-bottomed cacks, 8 cents for women's turned slippers, 10 cents for thick-heeled runrounds, 12 cents for set heels, 20 cents for welts.
- A strip of material or covered cord applied to a seam or garment edge to strengthen or cover it.
1672, Elias Ashmole, The institution, laws & ceremonies of the most noble Order of the Garter, chapter III, section 1:[The] Mantle of this Order was of Skie-coloured Damask, having broad welt of Gold embroidered on the Collar, and [...]
- 1688, Randle Holme, The academy of armory, book 1, chapter IV, "Of the Bend divers ways":
- […] surmounted of another Azure: but in my Judgment, it rather represents a Hem, or Welt of a Belt, or an Edg of Silver, than two Belts one upon another; which the Bend properly signifie […]
- 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.
- (heraldry) A narrow border, as of an ordinary, especially one which does not extend all the way around the ends of it (where it touches the edges of the shield) as a fimbriation would.
- 1688, Randle Holme, The academy of armory, book 1, chapter IV, "Of the Bend divers ways":
- Therefore this may be taken for an Observation, that an edg, or hem, or welt, only runs on the sides of the Ordinary; but the Border invirons, or goeth clear round the same, […]
- Any other feature resembling a welt (strip).
2018, Susan Orlean, chapter 6, in The Library Book:“The neighborhood is officially called Mid-City, but it is often referred to as Crenshaw. The area is wide and bright, a grid of small streets crisscrossed with boulevards and the welt of the I-10 freeway running along its southern edge.”
Translations
raised mark on the body
- Bulgarian: следа от камшик (sleda ot kamšik)
- Czech: šrám m, podlitina f, šlic m
- French: zébrure (fr) f, marque de coup f
- German: Quaddel (de) f, Strieme f
- Irish: riast m, fearb f, riast m
- Italian: pomfo (it) m, segno di frustata, gonfiore (it) m, livido (it) m
- Latin: vībex f
- Maori: kārawarawa
- Plautdietsch: Knubbel m
- Polish: ślad (pl) m, pręga (pl) f
- Russian: рубе́ц (ru) m (rubéc)
- Sorbian:
- Lower Sorbian: puchoŕk m
- Tagalog: pantal, pamamantal
- Vietnamese: lằn roi, lằn (vi)
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strip of leather on a shoe
strip of material applied to a seam
- Bulgarian: скрит шев m (skrit šev)
- Czech: zpevňující lem
- Scottish Gaelic: balt m
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Translations to be checked
Verb
welt (third-person singular simple present welts, present participle welting, simple past and past participle welted)
- To cause to have welts; to beat.
1904 September, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Abbey Grange”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:Well, gentlemen, I was standing with her just inside the window, in all innocence, as God is my judge, when he rushed like a madman into the room, called her the vilest name that a man could use to a woman, and welted her across the face with the stick he had in his hand.
1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 113:"Cover your scut, or I'll welt the skin off it."
- To install welt (a welt or welts) to reinforce.
Further reading
- (heraldry):
1830, Thomas Robson, The British herald, or Cabinet of armorial bearings of the nobility & gentry of Great Britain & Ireland:WELT, or EDGE, a narrow bordure to an ordinary or charge: it differs from the fimbriation, as a cross, &c. should have the fimbriation all round it, showing itself where it joins the outer part of the shield, which the welt does not, when the ordinary touches or is attached to the outer part of the escutcheon.