different between wallow vs willow

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

Etymology

From Middle English wilwe, welew, variant of wilghe, from Old English weli?, from Proto-West Germanic *wilig, from Proto-Indo-European *welik- (compare (Arcadian) Ancient Greek ????? (helík?), Hittite ???????????? (welku, “grass”)), from *wel- (“twist, turn”).

Pronunciation

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

Noun

willow (countable and uncountable, plural willows)

1. Any of various deciduous trees or shrubs in the genus Salix, in the willow family Salicaceae, found primarily on moist soils in cooler zones in the northern hemisphere.

   • […] and through the middle of this forest, from wall to wall, ran a winding line of brilliant green which marked the course of cottonwoods and willows.

2. The wood of these trees.
3. (cricket, colloquial) A cricket bat.
4. (baseball, slang, 1800s) The baseball bat.
5. A rotating spiked drum used to open and clean cotton heads.

Synonyms

• withy

Derived terms

• French willow
• Red Willow County
• Red Willow Creek
• weeping willow
• willow in the wind

Translations

Verb

willow (third-person singular simple present willows, present participle willowing, simple past and past participle willowed)

1. (transitive) To open and cleanse (cotton, flax, wool, etc.) by means of a willow.
2. (intransitive) To form a shape or move in a way similar to the long, slender branches of a willow.
   • 1928, Robert Byron, The Station: Travels to the Holy Mountain of Greece, Chapter 12,^[1]

     Willowing over the rough cobbles of the little pier stepped a thin, bent figure, adorned with a silver nannygoat’s beard and bobbling eyes interrupted by the rim of a pair of pince-nez.

   • 1930, Talbot Mundy, Black Light, Chapter 7,^[2]

     Joe’s impulse was to sketch her, with her shadow willowing beyond her on the mouse-gray paving-stone; but his left fist, obeying instinct, remained clenched behind his back […]

   • 1985, Martin Booth, Hiroshima Joe, New York: Picador, p. 394,^[3]

     It was floating a foot under the surface. The eyes were holes. The mouth was a slit cavern of darkness. The hair willowed around the scalp.

   • 2013, Dean Koontz, Wilderness, Bantam Books,^[4]

     The draft-drawn smoke willowed down through the hole and across my face, but I didn’t worry about coughing or sneezing.