Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 2002 (DOST Vol. XII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

(Weltiring,) Welt(e)ring, vbl. n. Also: weltryng, waltering, valtring, woltryng, -ing. [Late ME and e.m.E. welteryng (1448-9), waltrynge (1552).]

1. The violent movement of water, tossing, surging. (Weltir v. 1.) b. The action of causing the splashing of water. (Weltir v. 5 a.) 1528 Lynd. Dreme 128.
Bot satt styll, in that coue, quhare I mycht se The woltryng of the wallis vp and doun, And this fals wardlis instabilytie c1552 Lynd. Mon. 1575.
Throuch weltryng of that furious flude, The cragis of erth war maid denude 1626 Garden Worthies 54.
Most strang mutations in the state of man … lyke the waltering of the waters wanb. 1581-1623 James VI Poems I 132/367.
The fearefull … whale … In weltring … the bulluring plaine, Doth bury vnderneath the waues Our fleeting castell fair

2. fig.The action of turning or overturning, change, revolution or upset. (Weltir v. 4 c.) b. Tumbling, falling. (Weltir v. 3 b.) c1409-1436 Kingis Q. § 163.
To se the sudayn weltering Off that ilk quhele [sc. of Fortune] 1562-3 Winȝet I 15/10.
The meruellis of woltring of realmes to vngodlie seditioun and discorde, we adnumber nocht to be of His gyftis 1588 Comm. Univ. III (St. A.) App. 193.
This confused tyme (quhen all folkis ar loukand to the weltering of the warld) 1588–9 Cal. Sc. P. X 1.
[It is hard to judge what will be tomorrow, especially in this court suffering such alteration and] waltering [as is incredible]b. c1590 J. Stewart 9/44.
I treist … to find Ȝour royall breath vith fauor for to blaw Till help my vingles valtring in the vind

3. Wallowing. (Weltir v. 2.) c1520-c1535 Nisbet 2 Peter ii 22.
A sow is weschin in weltring [P. walwyng] in fenn