Whelp v.

[f. prec.]

  1.  trans. To bring forth (a whelp or whelps).

c. 1200.  Ormin, 6029. Þatt deor Þatt wass i leoness like, Þatt riseþþ o þe þridde daȝȝ Affterr þatt itt iss wheollpedd.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 200. Monie mo hweolpes þen ich habbe inempneð haueð þe Liun of Prude ihweolped.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. i. (Bodl. MS.), lf. 241 b/2. Þe female wolfe whelpiþ manye whelpes as þe bitche doþe.

1493.  Festivall (W. de W., 1515), 145. Whan a lyon hath yonge whelpes they shall lye as deed thre dayes after y^t they ben whelped.

1577.  Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. 155 b. As soone as they be Whelped, cast away such as you mislike.

1677.  N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., I. (ed. 2), 135. [Bears] are whelped most commonly in March, sometimes two, and not above five in number.

1731.  Gentl. Mag., Aug., 352/2. A Litter of young Lions was whelped at the Tower, from a Lioness and Lion whelp’d there 6 years before.

1775.  Phil. Trans., LXVI. 103. They all come on shore in December, to whelp their young.

1861.  Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., iii. Jack’s the dog as can draw a brock … agin any Lonnun dog as ever was whelped.

1892.  Brit. Fancier, 19 Feb., 71/2. His bitch Dainty … has just whelped a … fine litter to Mrs. Dainty’s Dictator.

  b.  transf. and fig. To bring forth: often with contemptuous implication.

1581.  J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 82 b. Two detestable lyes whelped at one lytter (so pregnant is this worme).

1599.  B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., II. iv. Vnlesse shee had whelpt it her selfe, shee could not haue lou’d a thing better.

a. 1641.  Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 422. Antignus, Boethus, Sadoc, and such mungrels were scarce whelped in Epiphanius his dayes.

1675.  Hobbes, Odyss., VIII. 472. Sing now of the Horse of Wood … Which in Troy-Town destruction to it whelpt.

1781.  Cowper, Table-T., 536. Having whelped a prologue with great pains.

1821.  Scott, Kenilw., xix. Out, you diminutive pint-pot, whelped of an overgrown reckoning!

1902.  Wister, Virginian, xv. None of ’em was whelped savage enough to sing himself bloodthirsty.

  2.  intr. To bring forth whelps.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. lxxiv. (Bodl. MS.). Þat wesels conceyue atte mouþe and whelpiþ atte ere.

a. 1400.  Octouian, 470. The tygre aftyr thys batayle, Whelpede sone for hyr trauayle.

1605.  B. Jonson, Volpone, II. i. Your lyons whelping, in the Tower.

1660.  Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., Digress. 368. A Bitch that was said to be almost ready to whelp.

1798.  W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., V. 208. On Paris’ tomb The flocks insulting frisk, And whelps the lioness in Priam’s hall.

1887.  Swinburne, Locrine, IV. ii. 98. No she-wolf whelps upon the wold Whose brood is like thy mother’s.

  fig.  1821.  Shelley, Hellas, 874. The foliage in which Fame, the eagle, built Her aerie, while Dominion whelped below.

  Hence Whelped ppl. a., Whelping vbl. sb.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xxvi. (Bodl. MS.). In bicches melk is founde many daies bifore þe whelpinge.

1625.  K. Long, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, II. xiii. 105. She was then lately dead in whelping.

1804.  W. Taylor, in Robberds, Mem. (1843), I. 491. Licking the whelped bears into courtliness at one’s leisure.

1907.  R. Leighton, New Bk. Dog, 578. Breeding and Whelping.