[Misspelt form of WEAL sb.2 Cf. WHEAL v.2] a. The ridge raised on the flesh by a blow: = WALE sb.1 2, WEAL sb.2
1811. L. M. Hawkins, C’tess & Gertr., I. 26. Cover her neck over that I may not see the wheals on it.
1825. Gentl. Mag., May, 396/2. Each blow raised a wheal upon the place where it fell.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, v. To find himself … without supper—covered with wheals.
1887. Rider Haggard, Jess, ix. Across his face was a blue wheal where the whip had fallen.
b. In modern medical use, a flat, usually circular, hard elevation of the skin, esp. that characteristic of urticaria.
So called because resembling the ‘wheal’ raised on the skin by a blow.
1808. Willan, Cutaneous Dis., I. p. xi. Wheal; a rounded, or longitudinal elevation … with a white summit,… not containing a fluid, nor tending to suppuration.
1818–20. E. Thompson, trans. Cullen’s Nosologia (ed. 3), 326. It [sc. Urticaria] is distinguished by those elevations of the cuticle, which are usually denominated wheals.
1876. Bristowe, Theory & Pract. Med., 290. A wheal may be regarded as a form of tubercle.
Comb. 1876. Bristowe, Theory & Pract. Med., 542. The internal coat of translucent wheal-like thickenings.
c. gen. A ridge.
1855. Newman, Callista, xv. They [sc. locusts] moved right on like soldiers in their ranks…; they carried a broad furrow or wheal all across the country.
1898. H. G. Wells, War of Worlds, I. xii. 106. The water in its track rose in a boiling wheal crested with steam.
