[Alteration of WELL v., prob. under the influence of the pa. pple.]
1. intr. To undergo junction by welding; to admit of being welded. Also fig.
1599. James I., Βασιλικον Δωρον, III. 153. Mixinge through … dailie conuersation, the men of euery kingdome with an other, as may with time make them to growe and weld [orig. MS. well] all in one.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., i. 10. They say it makes the Iron weld, or incorporate the better.
1724. Ramsay, Song, Widow, 21. Strike iron while ’tis het, if ye’d have it to wald.
1884. W. H. Greenwood, Steel & Iron, x. 204. When heated to whiteness … the particles cohere or weld together perfectly.
2. trans. To soften by heat and join together (pieces of metal, esp. iron, or iron and steel) in a solid mass, by hammering or by pressure; to forge (an article) by this method.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., i. 9. And so weld, or work in the doubling into one another, and make it become one entire lump.
1680. Alsop, Mischief Imposit., vii. 51. A Cutler’s boy … was making a knife, and unluckily the steel fell off when he had welded it.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 341. They are usually made of iron and steel welded together.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., xxx. (ed. 3), 299. In this difficulty, the contractors resorted to a mode of welding the gun-barrel.
1848. Lytton, Harold, I. i. I heard the smith welding arms on the anvil.
1880. Encycl. Brit., XI. 284. The bayonet consists of a steel blade welded to a wrought-iron socket.
b. fig. and transf. To unite intimately or inseparably; to join closely together.
(a) 1839. Bailey, Festus, 243. Let us love, and die, And weld our souls together, night!
1860. Geo. Eliot, Mill on Fl., II. vi. If boys and men are to be welded together in the glow of transient feeling, they must be made of metal that will mix.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, xi. Habits, inexorably welded into the being of the man.
(b) 1859. Murchison, Siluria, xi. (ed. 3), 301. The lower part being welded on to the Upper Silurian by thin fissile strata.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xx. 139. All the glaciers … are welded together to a common trunk.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 690. A hypertrophic condition of the horny layers of the epidermis—the cells becoming condensed or ‘welded’ together.
