# whelp
## English
### Etymology 1

From Middle English whelp, from Old English hwelp, from Proto-West Germanic *hwelp, from Proto-Germanic *hwelpaz (compare Dutch welp, German Welpe, Welfe, Old Norse hvelpr, Norwegian Nynorsk kvelp, Danish hvalp), from pre-Germanic *kʷelbos, of uncertain origin.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /wɛlp/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (without the wine–whine merger) IPA: /ʍɛlp/
* Rhymes: -ɛlp
* Homophone: welp (wine–whine merger)

#### Noun

whelp (plural whelps)
* A young offspring of a various carnivores (canid, ursid, felid, pinniped), especially of a dog or a wolf, the young of a bear or similar mammal (lion, tiger, seal); a pup, wolf cub.
** 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:[…] And fared like a furious wyld Beare, / Whose whelpes are ſtolne away, ſhe being otherwhere.
** 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4:Pro. […] Then was this Iſland / (Saue for the Son, that he did littour heere, / A frekelld whelpe, hag-borne) not honour'd with / A humane ſhape.
* (derogatory) An insolent youth; a mere child.
** July 13, 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian
    That awkward whelp with his money bags would have made his entrance.
** October 22, 2011, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "Luna Eclipsed"
    Thy backside is whole and ungobbled, thou ungrateful whelp!
* (obsolete) A kind of ship.
* One of several wooden strips to prevent wear on a windlass on a clipper-era ship.
* A tooth on a sprocket wheel (compare sprocket and cog).

##### Derived terms

* bear-whelp
* fox whelp, fox-whelp, fox's whelp (foxling)
* whelping ice (Newfoundland)
* whelpie
* whelpling
* whelpy
* wolf whelp, wolf-whelp, wolf's whelp

##### See also

* Guelph

### Etymology 2

From Middle English whelpen, from Old English hwelpian, derived from hwelp.

#### Verb

whelp (third-person singular simple present whelps, present participle whelping, simple past and past participle whelped)
* (transitive, intransitive, of she-dog, she-wolf, vixen, etc.) To give birth.
    The bitch whelped.
    The she-wolf whelped a large litter of cubs.

##### Translations
### Etymology 3

Variant of welp.

#### Interjection

whelp
* Alternative form of welp (“well”)

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* quelp, quelpe, qwelp, qwelpe, welp, welpe, whelpe
* ȝwelp, hwelp, hweolp, whellp (Early Middle English)

### Etymology

From Old English hwelp, from Proto-West Germanic *hwelp, from Proto-Germanic *hwelpaz.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /hwɛlp/
* (dialectal) IPA: /wɛlp/, /xwɛlp/

### Noun

whelp (plural whelpes)
* A whelp (a puppy or a baby dog)
* A whelp (the young of other animals, especially canids and felids)
* A whelp (as an insulting term)
* (rare) An unknown kind of mechanical machine or system.

#### Related terms

* whelpen
* whelpynge

#### Descendants

* English: whelp
* Scots: whalp, whaulp

#### References

* “whelp, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-09.