Definition of "welter" in English

noun

1. A general confusion or muddle, especially of a large number of items.

2. A tossing or rolling about.

verb

1. (intransitive) To roll around; to wallow.

2. (intransitive, figurative) To revel, luxuriate.

   • 1537, Hugh Latimer, Sermon III, Preached to the Convocation of the Clergy, in The Sermons of Hugh Latimer, London: J. Scott, 1783, Volume I, p. 38, When we welter in pleasures and idleness, then we eat and drink with drunkards.
   • These wisards weltre in welths waues, pampred in pleasures deepe, They han fatte kernes, and leany knaues,

3. (intransitive, of waves, billows) To rise and fall, to tumble over, to roll.

adjective

1. Heavyweight. (of horsemen)

   • a welter race

verb

1. To wither; to wilt.

   • 1860, Isaac Taylor, Ultimate Civilization, and Other Essays, London: Bell & Dalday, “Ultimate Civilization,” Part I, IV, p. 40, But look now into the weltered hearts and blighted memories of those whom we have gathered from out of the thousands of the lost and wretched.