waulk

present singular third person waulks · participle present waulking · participle past waulked · past waulked

1. transitiveobsolete outside Northern England and Scotlandto make cloth (especially tweed in Scotland) denser and more felt-like by soaking and beating.

   Here, we compare waulking songs and shanties to see how they operated in bringing women and men, respectively, into a sense of close alignment.

   2013, Marek Korczynski, Michael Pickering, Emma Robertson, Rhythms of Labour: Music at Work in Britain, Cambridge University Press, page 97

   2 more examples

   The frame on which the cloth is waulked is a board some twelve to twenty-four feet long and about two feet broad, grooved lengthwise along its surface.

   1900, Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, volume 1, page 310

   1992, Diana Gabaldon, Dragonfly in Amber, Random House Group (Arrow Books), page 590, I hid a smile at the mention of wool waulking. Alone among the Highland farms, I was sure, the women of Lailybroch waulked their wool not only to the old traditional chants but also to the rhythms of Moliére and Piron.

   Synonyms: full, walk