well
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
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: better
form: best
form: wall
form: weel
form: weil
form: welp
Etymology: From Middle English wel, wal, wol, wele, from Old English wel (“well, abundantly, very, very easily, very much, fully, quite, nearly”), from Proto-Germanic *wela, *wala (“well”, literally “as wished, as desired”), from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“wish, desire”).
Cognate with Scots wele, weil (“well”), North Frisian wel, weil, wal (“well”), West Frisian wol (“well”), Dutch wel (“well”), Low German wol (“well”), German wohl (“well”), Norwegian and Danish vel (“well”), Swedish väl (“well”), Icelandic vel, val (“well”). Related to will.
Senses: examples: text: He does his job well.
text: My RV runs well on diesel.
text: In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.
ref: 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, page 266:
text: A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.
ref: 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
text: This day is not going well.
ref: 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
topics: manner
glosses: Accurately, competently, satisfactorily.
examples: text: Well done steaks
text: We’re well beat now.
text: I was well looked after by close relations.
text: Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers,[…]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: His overall color was similar to that of a well-boiled lobster.
ref: 1957 July, Randall Garrett, “The Best Policy”, in Astounding Science Fiction:
topics: manner
glosses: Completely, fully.
examples: text: That author is well known.
text: A monument well worth seeing
text: Indeed, some readers may feel that I am beating a horse now already well dead. But in fact, that dead horse is still being driven daily through the pages of introductory textbooks.
ref: 1995 Feb, Luke Timothy Johnson, “The New Testament and the examined life: Thoughts on teaching”, in The Christian Century, volume 112, number 4, page 108:
text: Energy markets demonstrated in the 1970s and 1980s that they were well capable of adapting to a perceived scarcity.
ref: 2000, Colin Robinson, “Energy Economists and Economic Liberalism”, in Energy Journal, volume 21, number 2, page 1:
text: neither of us was paying attention to any damn imaginary scoring judges -- we were both well content, if a little fatigued.
ref: 2006, Spider Robinson, Callahan's legacy:
qualifier: degree
glosses: To a significant degree.
examples: text: That guy rocks! I think he's called Matthew Lillard or sommat but he is well cool in Scream.
ref: 1999, Drummond Pearson, “What Ash are doing right now...”, in alt.music.ash (Usenet):
text: Hey Dude / FIFA 2003 is well wicked, I've got FIFA 2002 on PS2, David Beckham on Xbox and Football Manager on Xbox too, out of all pf^([sic]) them FIFA 2003 is easliy^([sic]) the best.
ref: 2002, jibaili, “FIFA 2003 How is it?”, in microsoft.public.xbox (Usenet):
text: Hey, you should've seen it, it was well good.
ref: 2003, Steve Eddy, Empower, Book 2:
qualifier: degree
glosses: Very (as a general-purpose intensifier).
examples: text: I'm glad Joe got fired last week. I think we're well rid of him.
text: Whatever now the omen prove, It boded well to you.
ref: 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC, (please specify the page number):
text: Know / In measure what the mind may well contain.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: October 10, 1714, Alexander Pope, letter to Joseph Addison
All the world speaks well of you.
text: My Son Johnny, named ſo after his Uncle, was at the Grammar School, and a towardly Child. My daughter Betty (who is now well married, and has Children) was then at her Needle-Work.
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author, by a Lucky Accident, Finds Means to Leave Blefuscu; and, after Some Difficulties, Returns Safe to his Native Country.”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), page 147:
glosses: In a desirable manner; so as one could wish; satisfactorily; favourably; advantageously.
Derived terms: all's well that ends well
all too well
all very well
as well
as well as
bloody well
damned well
damn well
darn well
do well
do well by doing good
do well for oneself
fare thee well
full well
fully well
goddamned well
go over as well as a lead balloon
hail fellow well met
ja well no fine
jolly well
just as well
know fine well
know full well
leave well alone
leave well enough alone
let well alone
let well enough alone
may as well
might as well
ne'er-do-well
over well
play one's cards well
play well with other
pretty well
sleep well
to a fare-thee-well
very well
well acquainted
well actually
well-adapted
well-adjusted
well-advised
well-aimed
well and truly
well-appointed
well-attested
well-aware
well aware
well-baked
well-balanced
well-beaten
well begun is half done
well-behaved
well-behavedly
well-behavedness
well-beloved
well-beseen
well-born
well-bred
well-breeched
well-brought-up
well-built
well-child clinic
well-connected
well-coupled
well-covered
well-defined
well-definedness
well-deserved
well-designed
well-developed
well-disposed
well-documented
well-doing
well done
well-done
well-dressed
well-earned
well-educated
well-endowed
well-equipped
well-established
well-favored
well-favoured
well-fed
well-filled
well firmed
well-fitted
well-fixed
well-formed
well-formed formula
well-formedness
well-formedness rules
well-found
well-founded
well-foundedness
well-furnished
well-gowned
well-groomed
well-grounded
well-handed
well-handled
well-heeled
well-horned
well-hung
well-informed
well-intended
well-intentioned
well-kept
well-knit
well-known
well-laid
well-liked
well liked
well-liking
well-lit
well-looked
well loved
well-loved
well-made
well-made play
well-mannered
well-matched
well-meaner
well-meaning
well-meaningly
well-meant
well-merited
well met
well-minded
well-near
well-nigh
well-nourished
well-off
well off
well-offness
well-oiled
well-oiled machine
well-order
well-orderable
well-ordered
well-ordering
well-padded
well-paid
well-placed
well-planned
well played
well-pleased
well-pointed
well-posed
well-posedness
well-practised
well-prepared
well-preserved
well-proportioned
well-publicised
well-publicized
well-put
well-qualified
well-read
well-received
well-regarded
well-regulated
well-respected
well-rested
well-room
well-rounded
well-run
well said
well-seen
well-served
well-set
well-settled
well-shaped
well-smithied
well-spoken
well spotted
well-stacked
well-stocked
well-stomached
well-tailored
well-tempered
well-tended
well-thewed
well-thought-of
well-thought-out
well-thriven
well-thumbed
well-timed
well-to-do
well-travelled
well-tried
well-trod
well-trodden
well-turned
well-upholstered
well-used
well versed
well-will
well-willer
well-willing
well-wish
well-wished
well-wisher
well-wishing
well-wooded
well-worn
wish someone well
wish well
wish you well
worried well