whelked

[ welkt, hwelkt ]

adjective

1. ridged like the shell of a snail:

   a whelked horn.

Word History and Origins

Origin of whelked¹

First recorded in 1550–60; whelk ¹ + -ed ³

Example Sentences

Whelked, ridged like a whelk; Whel′ky, knobby, rounded.

From Project Gutenberg

And when Edgar is trying to persuade the blind Gloucester that he has in reality cast himself over the cliff, he describes the being from whom he is supposed to have just parted, thus:—     "As I stood here below, methought his eyes     Were two full moons: he had a thousand noses;     Horns whelked and wavèd like the enridgèd sea:     It was some fiend."

From Project Gutenberg

The attention of the stranger is also attracted by another consecrated building on the hill slope of Belvidere,—one of Irving's a "shingle palaces," painted in imitation of stone,—a great wooden sham, "whelked and horned" with pine spires and turrets, a sort of whittled representation of the many-beaded beast of the Apocalypse.

From Project Gutenberg

The attention of the stranger is also attracted by another consecrated building on the hill slope of Belvidere,—one of Irving's a "shingle palaces," painted in imitation of stone,—a great wooden sham, "whelked and horned" with pine spires and turrets, a sort of whittled representation of the many-beaded beast of the Apocalypse.

From Project Gutenberg