wend; see [ween].
wennel, a weaned animal. Tusser, Husbandry, § 20, 28; ‘A lamb or a kid or a weanell wast’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 198 (weanell wast prob. means ‘a stray weanling’). ‘Wennel’ is an E. Anglian word for a weaned calf (EDD.).
went, a path, a way; ‘Tract of living went’ (i.e. trace of living way, of any way which living men use), Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 47; v. 4. 46; v. 6. 3. ‘Went’ in many applications is in prov. use in many parts of Great Britain; see EDD. ME. wente, a way, passage (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 787).
werd, fate, destiny; ‘The wofull werd’, Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 63. In prov. use in this sense in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Weird, 1). ME. werd, fate, destiny (Wars Alex. 3247); werdis, destinies (Barbour’s Bruce, ii. 329). OE. wyrd, fate, destiny; Wyrde, the Fates. Parcae, The Weird Sisters (B. T.). Icel. Urðr (in poetry), one of the Norns, see Grimm, Teut. Myth, 405. See [weird].
werish, tasteless, insipid; ‘Dawcockes, lowtes, cockescombes and blockhedded fooles were . . . said betizare to be as werishe and as unsavery as beetes’, Udall, tr. Apoph., Diogenes, § 85; ‘Werysshe as meate is that is nat well tastye, mal savouré’, Palsgrave; wearish, weak, delicate, puny, sickly-looking, ‘A wretched wearish elfe’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 5. 34; weerish, Drayton, Pol. xxix. 62; waryish, Golding, Metam. ii. 776. See Nares (s.v. Wearish). In prov. use, in many forms, in various parts of Great Britain, see EDD. (s.v. Wairsh).
werwolf, a man changed into a wolf by enchantment; ‘She made hym seuen yere a werwolf’, Morte Arthur, leaf 397, 17; bk. xix, c. 11; warwolf, Drayton, Man in the Moon, 13. ME. werwolf (Will. of Palerne, 80), MHG. werwolf, a man-wolf; cp. Med. L. gerulphus (Ducange), OF. garou, cp. F. loup-garou (Hatzfeld). See Dict.
wetewold, a ‘wittol’, a contented cuckold. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 187; Assembly of Gods, 710 (see Notes by Dyce, on Skelton, ii. 305). See [wittol].
wet finger: phr. with a wet finger, easily, readily. Beaumont and Fl., Cupid’s Revenge, iv. 3 (Citizen); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 2. 5; id., Gul’s Hornbook; Heywood’s Proverbs (ed. Farmer, p. 95; see Word-List). It prob. means as easy as turning over the leaf of a book, or rubbing out writing on a slate with a wet finger, or tracing a lady’s name on the table with spilt wine (Farmer).
wethering, weathering, seasoning due to exposure to weather. Latimer, Sermon on the Ploughers (ed. Arber, p. 24). In prov. use in Norfolk, see EDD. (s.v. Weather, vb. 8).
wexing, waxing (as the moon). Dryden, Annus Mirab., st. 4. ME. wexe, to grow (Wyclif, Matt. xiii. 30).