%wels%

n. [ G. ] (Zool.) The sheatfish; -- called also waller. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to Auer von Welsbach or the incandescent gas burner invented by him. --
Welsbach burner, a burner in which the combustion of a mixture of air and gas or vapor is employed to heat to incandescence a mantle composed of thoria and ceria. The mantle is made by soaking a “stocking” in a solution of nitrates of thorium and cerium (approx. 99:1), drying, and, for use, igniting to burn the thread and convert the nitrates into oxides, which remain as a fragile ash. The light far exceeds that obtained from the same amount of gas with the ordinary fishtail burner, but has a slight greenish hue. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. [ AS. wælisc, welisc, from wealh a stranger, foreigner, not of Saxon origin, a Welshman, a Celt, Gael; akin to OHG. walh, whence G. wälsch or welsch, Celtic, Welsh, Italian, French, Foreign, strange, OHG. walhisc; from the name of a Celtic tribe. See Walnut. ] Of or pertaining to Wales, or its inhabitants. [ Sometimes written also Welch. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Welsh flannel, a fine kind of flannel made from the fleece of the flocks of the Welsh mountains, and largely manufactured by hand. --
Welsh glaive, or
Welsh hook, a weapon of war used in former times by the Welsh, commonly regarded as a kind of poleax. Fairholt. Craig. --
Welsh mortgage (O. Eng. Law), a species of mortgage, being a conveyance of an estate, redeemable at any time on payment of the principal, with an understanding that the profits in the mean time shall be received by the mortgagee without account, in satisfaction of interest. Burrill. --
Welsh mutton, a choice and delicate kind of mutton obtained from a breed of small sheep in Wales. --
Welsh onion (Bot.), a kind of onion (Allium fistulosum) having hollow inflated stalks and leaves, but scarcely any bulb, a native of Siberia. It is said to have been introduced from Germany, and is supposed to have derived its name from the German term wälsch foreign. --
Welsh parsley, hemp, or halters made from hemp. [ Obs. & Jocular ] J. Fletcher. --
Welsh rabbit. See under Rabbit. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The language of Wales, or of the Welsh people. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. pl. The natives or inhabitants of Wales. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The Welsh call themselves Cymry, in the plural, and a Welshman Cymro, and their country Cymru, of which the adjective is Cymreig, and the name of their language Cymraeg. They are a branch of the Celtic family, and a relic of the earliest known population of England, driven into the mountains of Wales by the Anglo-Saxon invaders. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. & i. (a) To cheat by avoiding payment of bets; -- said esp. of an absconding bookmaker at a race track. [ Slang ] (b) To avoid dishonorably the fulfillment of a pecuniary obligation. [ Slang ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. One who cheats at a horse race; one who bets, without a chance of being able to pay; one who receives money to back certain horses and absconds with it. [ Written also welcher. ] [ Slang, Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Welshmen [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A native or inhabitant of Wales; one of the Welsh. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) (a) A squirrel fish. (b) The large-mouthed black bass. See Black bass. [ Southern U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. same as Welsh rabbit. [ PJC ]