waxen, pr. pl., they increase. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 56. The ME. pres. pl. in the Midland dialect. For the geographical area of the pres. pl. in n, sn, see Wright’s English Dialect Grammar, § 435.
way, to go on one’s way, to journey; ‘As they together wayd’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 12.
way, to ‘weigh’. Spenser, F. Q. v. 2. 46; ‘Full many things so doubtfull to be wayd’, id., iv. 1. 7; to esteem, ‘All that she so deare did way’, id., vii. 6. 55.
wayment, to lament. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 16. ME. waymenten (Chaucer, C. T. I. 230). Norm. F. guaimenter, waimenter: ‘Les virgines d’els ne guaimenterent’ (Ps. lxxvii. 69, ed. Michel, 111); see Moisy.
wealth, welfare, prosperity. Merch. Ven. v. 1. 249; Hamlet, iv. 4. 27; ‘The thinges that shuld have bene for their welth’ (AV. welfare), Ps. lxix. 23 (A.D. 1539); ‘wealth, peace and godliness’, Prayer Book (Collect for King). ME. welthe, prosperity, well-being (Gower, C. A. ii. 1207).
weanell; see [wennel].
wear, the fashion, that which is worn; ‘It is not the wear’, Meas. for M. iii. 2. 78.
wearish; see [werish].
weather: phr. To make fair weather, to conciliate another with fair words, Much Ado, i. 3. 25; 2 Hen. VI, v. 1. 30. Cp. the proverb, ‘Two women placed together make foul weather’, Hen. VIII, i. 4. 22.
weather-fend, to ‘defend’ from the weather. Tempest, v. 1. 10.