Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To swindle a person by not paying a debt or wager.
  • intransitive verb To fail to fulfill an obligation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cheat or practise cheating by betting or taking money as a stake on a horse-race, and running off without settling.
  • Foreign. See welshnut.
  • Relating or pertaining to Wales (a titular principality and a part of the island of Great Britain, opposite the southern part of Ireland), or to its people or its indigenous Cymric language
  • noun Collectively, as a plural word with the definite article, the people of Wales, or the members of the Cymric race indigenous to Wales. They were ruled by petty princes, and maintained their independence of the English till 1282–3.
  • noun The language of Wales or of the Welsh.

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

  • noun The language of Wales, or of the Welsh people.
  • noun The natives or inhabitants of Wales.
  • verb Slang, Slang, Slang To cheat by avoiding payment of bets; -- said esp. of an absconding bookmaker at a race track.
  • verb Slang To avoid dishonorably the fulfillment of a pecuniary obligation.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to Wales, or its inhabitants.
  • adjective a fine kind of flannel made from the fleece of the flocks of the Welsh mountains, and largely manufactured by hand.
  • adjective a weapon of war used in former times by the Welsh, commonly regarded as a kind of poleax.
  • adjective (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.
  • adjective a choice and delicate kind of mutton obtained from a breed of small sheep in Wales.
  • adjective (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 wälsch foreign.
  • adjective [Obs. & Jocular] hemp, or halters made from hemp.
  • adjective See under Rabbit.

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

  • verb pejorative To swindle someone by not paying a debt, especially a gambling debt.

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

  • noun a native or resident of Wales
  • noun a breed of dual-purpose cattle developed in Wales
  • verb cheat by avoiding payment of a gambling debt
  • adjective of or relating to or characteristic of Wales or its people or their language
  • noun a Celtic language of Wales

Etymologies

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

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probably from welch, spelling influenced by Welsh, used disparagingly. Compare gyp ("swindle") (probably from gypsy ("Roma")), and jew ("defraud"), from Jew.

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Examples

  • She continues, "Another favorite of mine for a quick supper ... (but not very healthy) is what we called welsh rarebit - tomato soup, Worcestershire sauce and shredded cheddar cheese over saltine crackers (which makes a) quick supper after a long hard day at work."

    SouthCoastToday.com Latest Headlines 2009

  • I went to school in west wales and i didn’t do English like everybody else until i was in year 3 (7/8years old) which made it easier as welsh is my fist language as and it is generally the first language of most people here in CARMARTHENSHIRE.

    Who Saw The Channel 4 News Report On Literacy And How In Wales Where Children Are No Longer Tested …? « Children Literacy « Literacy Help « Literacy News 2009

  • There is a feeling where I live that Plaid has been happy to fail its core voters, to take them for granted, in their desperation to look like they're not 'favouring' Welsh.,Even tiwht the Treganna schools issue, theyre so desperate not to look too 'welsh'-oriented that they're dropping their pledges.

    What happened to the promises? 2008

  • And the same is true across the whole of Wales, even in areas such as Monmouth which can hardly be described as welsh speaking heartlands.

    Archive 2007-04-01 2007

  • And the same is true across the whole of Wales, even in areas such as Monmouth which can hardly be described as welsh speaking heartlands.

    When is a political strategy a lie Glyn Davies 2007

  • What really bothers me is that the people who would consider our friends, the aussies and the welsh are the first to comment, when our oldest foes the South Africans say nothing and treat our tradition with respect, maybe because they to understand the significance of indigenous culture.

    Kapa O Pango Rogers 2006

  • ..besides, page & plant wrote much of their 3rd & 4th albums in a stone cottage called "bron-yr-aur" like the song or "hillside of gold" in welsh, which is quite literally a stones throw from an ancestral home of the bgw family in machynlleth...

    Coming and Going: Taking Liberties and Taking Leave BikeSnobNYC 2009

  • This was – and still is – a region of agriculture with some renowned products such as welsh rabbit, goat cheeses and white asparagus.

    Luc Montagnier - Autobiography 2009

  • How do the definitions of the word "welsh" that Davies chooses to precede the novel come to bear on the events and themes of the book?

    The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies: Questions 2007

  • Next thing you know she'll be appearing in photos with that 'welsh' exile terry matthews proclaiming that there'll be more millionaires in a self governing wales!

    Sex and Independence 2007

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