Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To roll the body about or lie relaxed in water or mud.
  • intransitive verb To indulge oneself to a great degree in something.
  • intransitive verb To be plentifully supplied.
  • intransitive verb To move with difficulty in a clumsy or rolling manner; flounder.
  • noun The act or an instance of wallowing.
  • noun A pool of water or mud where animals go to wallow.
  • noun The depression, pool, or pit produced by wallowing animals.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To roll; tumble about.
  • To roll the body in sand, mire, water, or other yielding substance.
  • To plunge into some course or condition; dwell with satisfaction in, addict one's self to, or remain in some way of life or habit, especially a sensual or vicious one.
  • To roll.
  • To fade away; wither; droop.
  • noun The act of rolling or tumbling, as in sand or mire.
  • noun A rolling gait.
  • noun A place to which an animal, as a buffalo, resorts to wallow; also, the traces of its wallowing left in the mire.
  • noun The alder-tree.
  • Insipid; tasteless.

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

  • transitive verb To roll; esp., to roll in anything defiling or unclean.
  • intransitive verb To roll one's self about, as in mire; to tumble and roll about; to move lazily or heavily in any medium; to flounder.
  • intransitive verb To live in filth or gross vice; to disport one's self in a beastly and unworthy manner.
  • intransitive verb Prov. Eng. & Scot. To wither; to fade.
  • noun A kind of rolling walk.
  • noun Act of wallowing.
  • noun A place to which an animal comes to wallow; also, the depression in the ground made by its wallowing.

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

  • adjective now dialectal Tasteless, flat.
  • verb intransitive To roll one's self about, as in mire; to tumble and roll about; to move lazily or heavily in any medium; to flounder; as, swine wallow in the mire.
  • verb intransitive To immerse oneself in, to occupy oneself with, metaphorically.
  • verb intransitive To roll; especially, to roll in anything defiling or unclean, as a hog might do to dust its body to relieve the distress of insect biting or cool its body with mud.
  • verb intransitive To live in filth or gross vice; to disport one's self in a beastly and unworthy manner.
  • verb intransitive To wither; to fade.
  • noun An instance of wallowing.
  • noun A pool of water or mud in which animals wallow.
  • noun A kind of rolling walk.

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

  • verb rise up as if in waves
  • verb delight greatly in
  • verb devote oneself entirely to something; indulge in to an immoderate degree, usually with pleasure
  • noun an indolent or clumsy rolling about
  • noun a puddle where animals go to wallow
  • verb roll around,
  • verb be ecstatic with joy

Etymologies

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

[Middle English walowen, from Old English wealwian; see wel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

(From inflected forms of) Old English wealġ, from Proto-Germanic *walwo-. Cognate with dialectal Norwegian valg ("tasteless"). Compare waugh.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English wealwian, from Proto-Germanic *walwōnan.

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Examples

  • I think a wallow is good for the soul on occasion.

    In Which I Stop Whining and Realize I'm Lucky kittenpie 2007

  • Later on, he was wont to say that this poverty had been the best possible thing for him, its enforced abstinences having come just at the time when he had begun to "wallow" -- his word for any sort of excess; and "wallowing" was undoubtedly a peril to which Norbert's temper particularly exposed him.

    Will Warburton George Gissing 1880

  • If you’ve ever heard Bill Maher speak on the subject of religion, you know my views. hopefully you agree with him. but you can always help yourself. just dont lay there in wallow in your pity and the need for sympathy from others.

    Think Progress » Former GOP Congressman J.C. Watts: ‘Social programs’ are the ‘new slavery.’ 2010

  • And then, for a short story I fix my eye on the end point and let the rest happen; for a novel I kind of wallow, and try to keep the process playful and not-a-chore and not close off too many possibilities.

    Children's Lit Fabulosity 2010

  • And then, for a short story I fix my eye on the end point and let the rest happen; for a novel I kind of wallow, and try to keep the process playful and not-a-chore and not close off too many possibilities.

    March 2010 2010

  • And then, for a short story I fix my eye on the end point and let the rest happen; for a novel I kind of wallow, and try to keep the process playful and not-a-chore and not close off too many possibilities.

    ::drumroll:: Margo Lanagan, Everybody! 2010

  • And then, for a short story I fix my eye on the end point and let the rest happen; for a novel I kind of wallow, and try to keep the process playful and not-a-chore and not close off too many possibilities.

    Write Porn 2010

  • And then, for a short story I fix my eye on the end point and let the rest happen; for a novel I kind of wallow, and try to keep the process playful and not-a-chore and not close off too many possibilities.

    Books 2010

  • And then, for a short story I fix my eye on the end point and let the rest happen; for a novel I kind of wallow, and try to keep the process playful and not-a-chore and not close off too many possibilities.

    ::drumroll:: Margo Lanagan, Everybody! 2010

  • And then, for a short story I fix my eye on the end point and let the rest happen; for a novel I kind of wallow, and try to keep the process playful and not-a-chore and not close off too many possibilities.

    Shaken & Stirred 2010

Comments

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  • His voice wallowed rhapsodically.

    - Rebecca West, The Judge

    September 12, 2009

  • Mud! Mud! Glorious mud!

    Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood.

    So follow me, follow

    me down to the hollow

    and there we will wallow

    in glorious mud!

    Ten out of ten hippos agree that*, if you are going to engage in wallowing, then rhapsodic wallowing is the only way to go.

    *Agreement on the correct plural of the word 'hippopotamus' was much more elusive, however.

    September 12, 2009

  • I want a hippopotamus for Christmas -

    only a hippopotamus will do -

    no crocodiles, or rhinocerouses,

    I only like hippopotamuses,

    and hippopotamuses like me too!

    September 12, 2009