walm

W4A1L1M3
/wɔːm//wɑ(ː)m/

verb

To roll; to spout; to boil up.

OriginMiddle English walmen ← Old English wælm ← Proto-West Germanic *walmi →
UncommonScrabble 9
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Meanings

verbwalm (third-person singular simple present walms, present participle walming, simple past and past participle walmed)

present singular third person walms · participle present walming · participle past walmed · past walmed

  1. obsoleteTo roll; to spout; to boil up.

    The waters boile, and walme to our desire.

    1610, William Camden, translated by Philémon Holland, Britain, or A Chorographicall Description of the Most Flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland, […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press for] Georgii Bishop & Ioannis Norton, →OCLC
    2 more examples

    It serveth the inhabitants with fresh water walming out of springs, though itself be on all sides circumpassed about with the sea.

    1845(?), A view of Devonshire in 1630, with a Pedigree of most of its gentry, page 344

    […] a mighty huge hole or gulf all round, in manner of a hollow globe cut through the midst, exceeding deep and horrible to see to, full of much darkness, and the same not quiet and still, but turbulent and oftentimes boiling and walming upward, out of which there might be heard innumerable roarings and groanings of beasts, cries and wrawlings of an infinite number of children, […]

    1905, The Myths of Plato, page 442

Origin

  1. Proto-Germanic*walmiz
  2. Proto-West Germanic*walmi
  3. Old Englishwælm
  4. Middle Englishwalmen“to surge, bubble forth, pour forth”
  5. Englishwalm

From Middle English walmen (“to surge, bubble forth, pour forth”), from walm, walme (“a gush, surge”), from Old English wælm, welm, wylm, wielm, wilm (“that which wells, a fount, stream, spring, source, surge”), from Proto-West Germanic *walmi, *walmu, from Proto-Germanic *walmiz, *walmuz.

More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

walm. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/walm

MLA

“walm.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/walm. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “walm,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/walm.

Source: walm on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.