Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Wold

Wold

,
Noun.
[OE.
wold
,
wald
, AS.
weald
,
wald
, a wood, forest; akin to OFries. & OS.
wald
, D.
woud
, G.
wald
, Icel.
völlr
, a field, and probably to Gr. [GREEK] a grove, Skr.
vā[GREEK]a
a garden, inclosure. Cf.
Weald
.]
1.
A wood; a forest.
2.
A plain, or low hill; a country without wood, whether hilly or not.
And from his further bank Aetolia’s
wolds
espied.
Byron.
The wind that beats the mountain, blows
More softly round the open
wold
.
Tennyson.

Wold

,
Noun.
See
Weld
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Wold

WOLD

, in Saxon, is the same as wald and weald, a wood, sometimes perhaps a lawn or plain. Wald signifies also power, dominion, from waldan, to rule. These words occur in names.

Definition 2024


wold

wold

English

Noun

wold (plural wolds)

  1. An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor.
  2. (obsolete) A wood or forest, especially a wooded upland
    • Byron
      And from his further bank Aetolia's wolds espied.
    • Tennyson
      The wind that beats the mountain, blows / More softly round the open wold.

Usage notes

  • Used in many English place-names, always hilly tracts of land.
  • Wald (German) is a cognate, but a false friend because it retains the original meaning of forest.

Derived terms

Related terms

References

  • OED 2nd edition 1989

Middle English

Verb

wold

  1. would

References

  • p. 1, Arthur; A Short Sketch of his Life and History in English Verse of the First Half of the Fifteenth Century, Frederick Furnivall ed. EETS. Trübner & Co.: London. 1864.

Middle Low German

Noun

wôld

  1. Alternative spelling of wôlt.