Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Welsh?

\Welsh\, v. t. & i. (a) To cheat by avoiding payment of bets; -- said esp. of an absconding bookmaker at a race track. [Slang] (b) To avoid dishonorably the fulfillment of a pecuniary obligation. [Slang]
\Welsh\, a. [AS. w[ae]lisc, welisc, from wealh a stranger, foreigner, not of Saxon origin, a Welshman, a Celt, Gael; akin to OHG. walh, whence G. w["a]lsch or welsch, Celtic, Welsh, Italian, French, Foreign, strange, OHG. walhisc; from the name of a Celtic tribe. See {Walnut}.] Of or pertaining to Wales, or its inhabitants. [Sometimes written also {Welch}.] {Welsh flannel}, a fine kind of flannel made from the fleece of the flocks of the Welsh mountains, and largely manufactured by hand. {Welsh glaive}, or {Welsh hook}, a weapon of war used in former times by the Welsh, commonly regarded as a kind of poleax. --Fairholt. --Craig. {Welsh mortgage} (O. Eng. Law), a species of mortgage, being a conveyance of an estate, redeemable at any time on payment of the principal, with an understanding that the profits in the mean time shall be received by the mortgagee without account, in satisfaction of interest. --Burrill. {Welsh mutton}, a choice and delicate kind of mutton obtained from a breed of small sheep in Wales. {Welsh onion} (Bot.), a kind of onion ({Allium fistulosum}) having hollow inflated stalks and leaves, but scarcely any bulb, a native of Siberia. It is said to have been introduced from Germany, and is supposed to have derived its name from the German term w["a]lsch foreign. {Welsh parsley}, hemp, or halters made from hemp. [Obs. & Jocular] --J. Fletcher. {Welsh rabbit}. See under {Rabbit}.
\Welsh\, n. 1. The language of Wales, or of the Welsh people. 2. pl. The natives or inhabitants of Wales. Note: The Welsh call themselves Cymry, in the plural, and a Welshman Cymro, and their country Cymru, of which the adjective is Cymreig, and the name of their language Cymraeg. They are a branch of the Celtic family, and a relic of the earliest known population of England, driven into the mountains of Wales by the Anglo-Saxon invaders.