different between wallow vs mooching

English

Alternative forms

• waller

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w?.l??/
• Rhymes: -?l??

Etymology 1

From Middle English walowen, walewen, walwen, welwen, from Old English wealwian (“to wallow, roll”), from Proto-Germanic *walwijan? (“to roll”), from Proto-Indo-European *welw- (“to turn, wind, roll”).

Verb

wallow (third-person singular simple present wallows, present participle wallowing, simple past and past participle wallowed) (intransitive)

1. To roll oneself about in something dirty, for example in mud.
2. To move lazily or heavily in any medium.
3. To immerse oneself in, to occupy oneself with, metaphorically.
   • 1995, The Simpsons Season 7 Episode 1, Who Shot Mr. Burns?, written by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein:

     With Smithers out of the picture I was free to wallow in my own crapulence.

4. To live or exist in filth or in a sickening manner.

   • God sees a man wallowing in his native impurity.

   • 1895, The Review of Reviews (volume 11, page 215)

     The floors are at times inches deep with dirt and scraps of clothing. The whole place wallows with putrefaction. In some of the rooms it would seem that there had not been a breath of fresh air for five years.

5. (Britain, Scotland, dialect) To wither; to fade.

Usage notes

In the sense of “to immerse oneself in, to occupy oneself with”, it is almost exclusively used for self-indulgent negative emotions, particularly self-pity. See synonyms for general or positive alternatives, such as revel.

Synonyms

• (to immerse oneself in): bask, delight, indulge, luxuriate, revel, rollick

Derived terms

• wallow in the mire

Translations

Noun

wallow (plural wallows)

1. An instance of wallowing.
2. A pool of water or mud in which animals wallow, or the depression left by them in the ground.
   • 2003, Suzann Ledbetter, A Lady Never Trifles with Thieves:

     Soon, the incessant wind would dry the stenchy wallow to corduroyed cement.

3. A kind of rolling walk.

Translations

Etymology 2

(From inflected forms of) Old English weal?, from Proto-Germanic *walwo-. Cognate with Dutch walg (“disgust”), dialectal Norwegian valg (“tasteless”). Compare waugh.

Adjective

wallow (comparative more wallow, superlative most wallow)

1. (now dialectal) Tasteless, flat.

English

Verb

mooching

1. present participle of mooch

Noun

mooching (plural moochings)

1. An idle stroll.

   her frequent moochings around the castle grounds