Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A young offspring of a carnivorous mammal, especially a dog or wolf.
- noun A child; a youth.
- noun An impudent boy or young man.
- noun A tooth of a sprocket wheel.
- noun Nautical Any of the ridges on the barrel of a windlass or capstan.
- intransitive verb To give birth to whelps or a whelp.
- intransitive verb To give birth to (whelps or a whelp).
from The Century Dictionary.
- To bring forth young, as the female of the dog and various beasts of prey.
- To bring forth, as a bitch, lioness, and many beasts of prey; hence, to give birth to; originate: used in contempt.
- noun The young of the dog, wolf, lion, tiger, bear, seal, etc., but especially of the dog; a cub: sometimes applied to the whole canine species, whether young or old.
- noun A youth; a cub; a puppy: a term of contempt.
- noun A kind of ship.
- noun Nautical, one of several longitudinal projections from the barrel of a capstan, windlass, or winch, provided to take the strain of the chain or rope which is being hove upon, and afford a firmer hold.
- noun One of the teeth of a sprocket-wheel.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To bring forth young; -- said of the female of the dog and some beasts of prey.
- transitive verb To bring forth, as cubs or young; to give birth to.
- noun One of the young of a dog or a beast of prey; a puppy; a cub.
- noun A child; a youth; -- jocosely or in contempt.
- noun (Naut.) One of the longitudinal ribs or ridges on the barrel of a capstan or a windless; -- usually in the plural.
- noun One of the teeth of a sprocket wheel.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
young offspring of acanid (ursid ,felid ,pinniped ), especially of adog or awolf , the young of abear or similarmammal (lion ,tiger ,seal ); apup ,wolf cub . - noun An
insolent (impudent ,despised )youth , amere child or youth. - noun obsolete A kind of
ship . - noun One of several wooden strips to prevent wear on a windlass on a clipper-era ship.
- noun A
tooth on asprocket wheel (comparesprocket , def. 2;cog , def. 1). - verb transitive, intransitive (of
she-dog ,she-wolf ,vixen , etc.) To givebirth .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun young of any of various canines such as a dog or wolf
- verb birth
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Item the first: For anybody who thinks they might want a Giant Ridiculous Dogge on their very own, my mom and her partner have a bitch in whelp, and are expecting puppies on the ground in January if all goes well.
i went to it on my knees, just as you said buymeaclue 2009
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At the word whelp, he cuffed him with his hammerlike fist, and Miner went down in a heap.
Wayside Courtships Hamlin Garland 1900
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For the whelp is a piece of flesh little more than a mouse, having neither eyes nor ears, and having claws some-deal bourgeoning, and so this lump she licketh, and shapeth a whelp with licking ....
Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus Robert Steele 1902
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Well, the next servant I tell you of shall not be called a whelp, if 'twere not to give you a stick to beat myself with.
The Love Letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652-54 Parry, Edward A 1901
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Well, the next servant I tell you of shall not be called a whelp, if 'twere not to give you a stick to beat myself with.
Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple (1652-54) 1888
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One thing you definitely * don't* want to see in your fic: The words 'whelp', 'deadboy', 'g-man', and the like.
May 14th, 2004 cloudsurfing 2004
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“Tell me, you green-eyed whelp,” he whispered, leaning down.
End of Time P. W. Catanese 2011
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“Tell me, you green-eyed whelp,” he whispered, leaning down.
End of Time P. W. Catanese 2011
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I was suitably terrified because I regarded myself as the young whelp who, quite frankly, wasn't possibly good enough to clean his boots, let alone give him advice on how to act a scene.
Brothers & Sisters: Will Nora Settle Down with Beau Bridges' Brody? 2011
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Captain L'nao, whom he felt was always too eager to whelp her seed anywhere in the cosmos, had made the decision with her usual irritating haste.
First Contact Ed Higgins 2011
yarb commented on the word whelp
Oh, God! to sail with such a heathen crew that have small touch of human mothers in them! Whelped somewhere by the sharkish sea. The white whale is their demigorgon...
- Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 38
July 25, 2008