Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A spot; scar; fault; blemish; taint.
- n. A spot; scar; fault; blemish; taint.
- To corrupt; vitiate.
- n. The belly; the wame.
- An old form of warn.
Wiktionary
- n. A spot; stain; mark; scar; weal; bruise.
- n. A (moral) blemish; fault; blemish; taint.
- n. Neglect; damage.
- v. transitive To injure or disfigure; blemish; mark; scar.
- v. transitive To defile; pollute; corrupt; vitiate.
- v. transitive To violate (one's word).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete The abdomen; the uterus; the womb.
- n. obsolete Spot; blemish; harm; hurt.
- v. obsolete To stain; to blemish; to harm; to corrupt.
Etymologies
- From Middle English wemmen, from Old English wemman ("to defile, besmirch, profane, injure, ill-treat, destroy, abuse, revile"), from Proto-Germanic *wammijanan (“to stain”), from Proto-Indo-European *wem- (“to spew, vomit”). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Sub – Prior with astonishment; “neither wem nor wound — not as much as a rent in his frock!””
“Be of good cheer, you will come off without either scar or scratch, wem or wound.”
“Ai felt saem way wem mai kitteh Mouche went ober teh rainbo brij.”
My cute innocent face - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“What if I wem to say that your good will would be sufficient?”
“Also maidenhood of body without wem is common to them all, and so is birth also.”
“I sang "Ein Jungling liebt ein Mädchen," of Schumann, and when I came to the line, "Und wem das just passieret, dem bricht das Herz entzwei," I heard a mournful sigh.”
In the Courts of Memory, 1858 1875; from Contemporary Letters
“If you cannot arrange with Czerny to bring Carl home, he must not go at all; “trau, schau, wem!””
“While he was in the house, Anna Vassilyevna did not see Elena, and had to be content with Zoya, who waited on her very devotedly, but kept thinking to herself: '_Diesen Insarof vorziehen -- und wem?”
“But no sooner had the knights resumed their station, than the clamour of applause was hushed into a silence, so deep and so dead, that it seemed the multitude wem afraid even to breathe.”
“Sub-Prior as well as his chains would permit; "nay, then, I will never trust ashen shaft and steel point more -- It is even so," he added, as he gazed on the Sub-Prior with astonishment; "neither wem nor wound -- not as much as a rent in his frock!”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wem’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
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.pages
tamerlane, rickett, bastan, barnum, byssus, carys, lyris, vidler, morphos, leafwing, phaon, scudder and 238 more...
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Wilton's words
Favourite words, usages and passages from Nashe's "The Unfortunate Traveller: or, the Life of Iacke Wilton" (1594)
doit, dandiprat, weep one's urine ..., snudge, scuppet, langret, fullam, hedgecreeper, pickthanke, go shop the gander, together by the ears, quagmire and 42 more...
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learnt from Scrabble
words I've seen played, raised eyebrows at and subsequently looked up — all real according to SOWPODS, the official international tournament word list
chiz, cru, fum, wop, dabster, alay, divi, tivy, weigela, izard, lamister, ket and 1 more...
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archaic
galligaskin, liripoop, twiddlepoop, calcographer, wem, cornobbled, daspygal, faffle, hobberdehoy, pith, cerusleus, wilkin and 10 more...
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I've Been Cornobbled!
From Uncle John's Unstoppable Bathroom Reader:
"You won't find these archaic words in most dictionaries, but take our word for it--they're real. And just for fun, try to use them in a ...hobberdehoy, faffle, dasypygal, cornobble, collieshangie, wem, calcographer, bodewash, twiddlepoop, liripoop, leptorrhinian, bridelope and 61 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for wem.
yarb Heeres a wench (said he) of as cleare a skin as Susanna, shee hath not a wemme on her flesh from the soale of the foote to the crowne of the head: how thinke you master doctor, will shee not serue the turne?
- Thomas Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller, 1594 Apr 14, 2010
tbtabby Noun: A stain, flaw, or scar. Oct 3, 2008