well
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /wɛl/
note: Dublin
ipa: /wɛl/
ipa: /wel/
ipa: /wəl/
ipa: [wɫ̩]
ipa: /wiːl/
ipa: /weɪ/
rhymes: -ɛl
homophone: wool (interjection or unstressed, some accents)
Forms: form: wells
Etymology: From Middle English welle, from Old English wielle (“well”), from Proto-West Germanic *wallijā, from Proto-Germanic *wallijǭ (“well, swirl, wave”), from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn; wind; roll”).
Cognate with West Frisian wel (“well”), Dutch wel (“well”), German Low German Well (“well”), German Welle (“wave”), Danish væld (“well; spring”), Swedish väl (“well”), Icelandic vella (“boiling; bubbling; eruption”).
Senses: examples: text: The woman said unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John iv:11:
glosses: A hole sunk into the ground as a source of water, oil, natural gas or other fluids.
examples: text: Begin, then, sisters of the sacred well.
ref: 1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC:
glosses: A place where a liquid such as water surfaces naturally; a spring.
examples: text: Make a well in the dough mixture and pour in the milk.
glosses: A small depression suitable for holding liquid or other objects.
examples: text: Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 32:
text: A well of serious thought and pure, / Too deep for earthly light.
ref: 1827, [John Keble], “St. Philip and St. James”, in The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume II, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 130:
text: News of the deaths of James Baldwin and Richard Bruce Nugent in 1987 seemed to signal the death of an era — an era which produced works of monumental significance for Black lesbians and gay men; works such as Giovanni's Room, Just Above My Head, and "Smoke, Lillies, and Jade." As a fledgling Black gay writer, this was the well from which I drew succor.
ref: 1989 February 5, Craig G. Harris, “Your Life's All In Your Dreams And Your Dreams Are All In Your Life”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 29, page 9:
glosses: A source of supply.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A vertical, cylindrical trunk in a ship, reaching down to the lowest part of the hull, through which the bilge pumps operate.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: The cockpit of a sailboat.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A compartment in the middle of the hold of a fishing vessel, made tight at the sides, but having holes perforated in the bottom to let in water to keep fish alive while they are transported to market.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A vertical passage in the stern into which an auxiliary screw propeller may be drawn up out of the water.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: A hole or excavation in the earth, in mining, from which run branches or galleries.
topics: architecture
glosses: An opening through the floors of a building, as for a staircase or an elevator; a wellhole.
glosses: The open space between the bench and the counsel tables in a courtroom.
topics: arts
crafts
engineering
hobbies
lifestyle
metallurgy
metalworking
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: The lower part of a furnace, into which the metal falls.
examples: text: They're having a special tonight: $1 wells.
glosses: A well drink.
examples: text: Tetris, the most widely played computer game of all time, is a problem-solving puzzle game. […] The player attempts to lock the falling shape smoothly together with the shapes in the well.
ref: 2005, James Paul Gee, Why Video Games are Good for Your Soul:
topics: video-games
glosses: The playfield of Tetris and similar video games, into which the blocks fall.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: In a microtiter plate, each of the small equal circular or square sections which serve as test tubes.
examples: text: You can reposition the order of documents in the window by clicking and dragging the tabs, or you can drag a tab out of the well and view a document in its own floating window.
ref: 2011, Ted LoCascio, Using Adobe InDesign CS5, Enhanced Edition, pages 2-12:
text: You should now have three documents open with their tabs showing in the tab well (this refers to the row of tabs for each open document in the editor), as shown in the following screenshot: […]
ref: 2016, Jeff Martin, Visual Studio 2015 Cookbook, page 15:
topics: computing
engineering
graphical-user-interface
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: The region of an interface that contains tabs.
Synonyms: sense: excavation in the earth, from which run branches or galleries
word: shaft
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Abyssinian well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: artesian well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: blind well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Buckley Wells
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Builth Wells
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Cheyenne Wells
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: cold as a well-digger's arse
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: deep well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: dipper well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: draining-well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: draw-well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: dry well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: dumb well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: footwell
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: frog in a well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: go to the well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: gravitational well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: gravity well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Holywell
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: hot well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Indian Wells
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: ink well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: light well
topics: architecture
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: lightwell
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: livewell
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Llandrindod Wells
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Llangammarch Wells
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Llanwrtyd Wells
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Malvern Wells
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: oil well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: poison the well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: potential well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: quantum well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Shap Wells
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: snow well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: spare tire well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: spare tyre well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: stairwell
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: stepwell
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Taff's Well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Tenbury Wells
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: the jug goes to the well until it breaks
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: the pitcher goes so often to the well that it is broken at last
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: tree well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: tube well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Tunbridge Wells
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well-boat
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well car
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well deck
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well drain
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well dressing
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well drilling
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: Well End
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well flowering
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well liquor
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well logging
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well-meaningness
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well nut
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well room
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well sinker
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: wellspring
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well-trod
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well wagon
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: well will
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: wet well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: wheel well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: wildcat well
topics: architecture
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: window well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: wishing well
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: you don't miss the water till the well runs dry
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: you never miss the water till the well runs dry
sense: Terms derived from well (noun)
word: you never miss the water until the well runs dry