Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To live as a resident; reside.
  • intransitive verb To exist in a given place or state.
  • intransitive verb To fasten one's attention on something, especially moodily or persistently: synonym: brood.
  • intransitive verb To speak or write at length; expatiate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In printing, the brief continuation of pressure in the taking of an impression on a hand-press or an Adams press, supposed to set or fasten the ink more firmly in the paper.
  • To linger; delay; continue; stay; remain.
  • To abide as a permanent resident; reside; have abode or habitation permanently or for some time.
  • To live; be; exist: without reference to place.
  • To continue on; occupy a long time with; speak or write about at great length or with great fullness: as, to dwell on a note in music; to dwell upon a subject.
  • Synonyms Abide, Sojourn, Continue, etc. See abide.
  • To inhabit.
  • To place as an inhabitant; plant.
  • noun An automatic pause in the action of one part of a machine to enable another part to complete its work; specifically, in a sheet-metal drawing-press, a pause in the motion of one die to enable another to continue its work, or a pause in the motion of the two dies to enhance the effect of their combined pressure.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb rare To inhabit.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To delay; to linger.
  • intransitive verb To abide; to remain; to continue.
  • intransitive verb To abide as a permanent resident, or for a time; to live in a place; to reside.
  • intransitive verb to abide in (a place); hence, to depend on.
  • intransitive verb to continue long on or in; to remain absorbed with; to stick to; to make much of.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun engineering A period of time in which a system or component remains in a given state.
  • noun engineering A brief pause in the motion of part of a mechanism to allow an operation to be completed.
  • noun electrical engineering A planned delay in a timed control program.
  • noun automotive In a petrol engine, the period of time the ignition points are closed to let current flow through the ignition coil in between each spark. This is measured as an angle in degrees around the camshaft in the distributor which controls the points, for example in a 4-cylinder engine it might be 55° (spark at 90° intervals, points closed for 55° between each).
  • verb intransitive, now literary To live; to reside.
  • verb intransitive To linger (on) a particular thought, idea etc.; to remain fixated (on).
  • verb intransitive, engineering To be in a given state.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb come back to
  • verb think moodily or anxiously about something
  • verb inhabit or live in; be an inhabitant of
  • verb originate (in)
  • verb exist or be situated within

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English dwellen, from Old English dwellan, to mislead, delay, dwell.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse dvelja to Old English dwellan. Cognates include Danish dvæle and Swedish dväljas.

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