different between well vs vein

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /w?l/. When used as an interjection, but not otherwise, occasional weak form /w?l/.
• Rhymes: -?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English wel, wal, wol, wele, from Old English wel (“well, abundantly, very, very easily, very much, fully, quite, nearly”), from Proto-Germanic *wela, *wala (“well”, literally “as wished, as desired”), from Proto-Indo-European *welh?- (“wish, desire”). Cognate with Scots wele, weil (“well”), North Frisian wel, weil, wal (“well”), West Frisian wol (“well”), Dutch wel (“well”), Low German wol (“well”), German wol, wohl (“well”), Norwegian and Danish vel (“well”), Swedish väl (“well”), Icelandic vel, val (“well”). Related to will.

Alternative forms

• wall (dialectal)
• weel, weil (Scotland)
• welp (US, informal)

Adverb

well (comparative better, superlative best)

1. (manner) Accurately, competently, satisfactorily.
   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     This day is not going well.

2. (manner) Completely, fully.

   • Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, […]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.

3. (degree) To a significant degree.
4. (degree, Britain, slang) Very (as a general-purpose intensifier).
   • 1999, "Drummond Pearson", What Ash are doing right now... (on Internet newsgroup alt.music.ash)

     That guy rocks! I think he's called Matthew Lillard or sommat but he is well cool in Scream.

   • 2002, "jibaili", FIFA 2003 How is it? (on Internet newsgroup microsoft.public.xbox)

     Hey Dude / FIFA 2003 is well wicked, I've got FIFA 2002 on PS2, David Beckham on Xbox and Football Manager on Xbox too, out of all pf^[sic] them FIFA 2003 is easliy^[sic] the best.
5. In a desirable manner; so as one could wish; satisfactorily; favourably; advantageously.
   • October 10, 1714, Alexander Pope, letter to Joseph Addison

     All the world speaks well of you.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

well (comparative better or weller, superlative best or wellest)

1. In good health.

2. (hypercorrect) Good, content.

3. (archaic) Prudent; good; well-advised.
   • 1897, National Association of Railway Surgeons, Railway surgeon, page 191:

     On leaving the operating table it is well to put the patient in a bed previously warmed and supplied with hot cans.

Derived terms

• full well
• get well
• oh, well
• well-being

Translations

Interjection

well

1. Used to acknowledge a statement or situation.

2. An exclamation of surprise (often doubled or tripled).

3. An exclamation of indignance.

4. Used in speech to express the overcoming of reluctance to say something.

5. Used in speech to fill gaps, particularly at the beginning of a response to a question; filled pause.
   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     Well, I am sorry. - It’s okay, Anna.

6. (Hiberno-English) Used as a greeting

Synonyms

• (reluctance): like, you know
• (filled pause): I mean, like
• (acknowledgment of previous statement): so
• (indignant): see, look, as if

Derived terms

• well, well
• welp

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English welle, from Old English wielle (“well”), from Proto-Germanic *wallij? (“well, swirl, wave”), from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to turn; wind; roll”). Cognate with West Frisian wel (“well”), Dutch wel (“well”), German Low German Well (“well”), German Welle (“wave”), Danish væld (“well; spring”), Swedish väl (“well”), Icelandic vella (“boiling; bubbling; eruption”).

Noun

well (plural wells)

1. A hole sunk into the ground as a source of water, oil, natural gas or other fluids.
2. A place where a liquid such as water surfaces naturally; a spring.
3. A small depression suitable for holding liquid or other objects.

   Make a well in the dough mixture and pour in the milk.

4. (figuratively) A source of supply.
5. (nautical) A vertical, cylindrical trunk in a ship, reaching down to the lowest part of the hull, through which the bilge pumps operate.
6. (nautical) The cockpit of a sailboat.
7. (nautical) A compartment in the middle of the hold of a fishing vessel, made tight at the sides, but having holes perforated in the bottom to let in water to keep fish alive while they are transported to market.
8. (nautical) A vertical passage in the stern into which an auxiliary screw propeller may be drawn up out of the water.
9. (military) A hole or excavation in the earth, in mining, from which run branches or galleries.
10. (architecture) An opening through the floors of a building, as for a staircase or an elevator; a wellhole.
11. The open space between the bench and the counsel tables in a courtroom.
12. (metalworking) The lower part of a furnace, into which the metal falls.
13. A well drink.

    They're having a special tonight: $1 wells.

14. (video games) The playfield of Tetris and similar video games, into which the blocks fall.
15. (biology) In a microtiter plate, each of the small equal circular or square sections which serve as test tubes.

Synonyms

• (excavation in the earth, from which run branches or galleries): shaft

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English wellen, from Old English willan, wyllan, wellan (“to boil; bubble forth”) and Old English weallan (“to well; bubble forth; spring out; flow”), from Proto-West Germanic *wallijan, from Proto-Germanic *wallijan?, *wallan?.

Cognate with German wallen (“boil, seethe”), Danish vælde (“gush”), Norwegian Nynorsk vella and outside Germanic, with Albanian valë (“hot, boiling”).

Verb

well (third-person singular simple present wells, present participle welling, simple past and past participle welled)

1. (intransitive) To issue forth, as water from the earth; to flow; to spring.

   • [Blood] welled from out the wound.

   • 1824, William Cullen Bryant, A Forest Hymn

     [Yon spring] wells softly forth.

2. (intransitive) To have something seep out of the surface.

   Her eyes welled with tears.

Derived terms

• upwell
• well up

Translations

German

Verb

well

1. singular imperative of wellen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of wellen

Luxembourgish

Etymology

From the accusative of Middle High German w?le, from Old High German w?la, from Proto-West Germanic *hw?lu. Cognate with German weil.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /væl/
• Rhymes: -æl
• Homophone: Well

Conjunction

well

1. because

Middle English

Adverb

well

1. Alternative form of wel

Adjective

well

1. Alternative form of wel

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *wallij?, whence also Old High German wella, Old Norse vella.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /well/, [we?]

Noun

well m

1. well

Declension

Descendants

• English: well

Pennsylvania German

Etymology

From Middle High German welich, from Old High German welih. Compare German welch.

Adverb

well

1. which

Pronoun

well

1. which

Welsh

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /?w??/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /?we??/, /?w??/

Adjective

well

1. Soft mutation of gwell.

Adverb

well

1. Soft mutation of gwell.

Mutation

English

Alternative forms

• wayn (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English veyne, borrowed from Anglo-Norman veine, from Latin v?na (“a blood-vessel; vein; artery”) of uncertain origin. See v?na for more. Displaced native edre, from ?dre (whence edder).

Pronunciation

• enPR: v?n, IPA^(key): /ve?n/
• Homophones: vain, vane
• Rhymes: -e?n

Noun

vein (plural veins)

1. (anatomy) A blood vessel that transports blood from the capillaries back to the heart.
2. (in the plural) The entrails of a shrimp.
3. (botany) In leaves, a thickened portion of the leaf containing the vascular bundle.
4. (zoology) The nervure of an insect’s wing.
5. A stripe or streak of a different colour or composition in materials such as wood, cheese, marble or other rocks.
   1. (geology) A sheetlike body of crystallized minerals within a rock.
6. (figuratively) A topic of discussion; a train of association, thoughts, emotions, etc.
   • 1712, Jonathan Swift, A Proposal For Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue

     He […] is able to open new scenes, and discover a vein of true and noble thinking.

7. (figuratively) A style, tendency, or quality.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Truth

     certain discoursing wits which are of the same veins

   • 1645, Edmund Waller, The Battle Of The Summer Islands

     Invoke the Muses, and improve my vein.

8. A fissure, cleft, or cavity, as in the earth or other substance.
   • I took another Prism therefore which was free from Veins

Related terms

• in the same vein
• veined
• veinless
• veinlet
• veinlike
• veinstone
• veiny
• venation
• venous
• blue-veined cheese
• deep vein thrombosis
• pulmonary vein
• varicose vein

Translations

Verb

vein (third-person singular simple present veins, present participle veining, simple past and past participle veined)

1. To mark with veins or a vein-like pattern.
   • 1853, Henry William Herbert, The Roman Traitor, Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson, Volume II, Chapter 18, p. 204,^[1]

     […] as he ceased from that wild imprecation, a faint flash of lightning veined the remote horizon, and a low clap of thunder rumbled afar off, echoing among the hills […]

   • 1920, Melville Davisson Post, The Sleuth of St. James’s Square, Chapter 14,^[2]

     “We brought out our maps of the region and showed him the old routes and trails veining the whole of it. […] ”

See also

• artery
• blood vessel
• capillary
• circulatory system
• phlebitis
• vena cava

Further reading

• vein on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• vein (geology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• vein in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• vein in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• vein at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Vien, Vine, nevi, vine

Estonian

Etymology

Borrowed from German Wein during the 19th century, ultimately from Latin v?num. Doublet of viin.

Noun

vein (genitive veini, partitive veini)

1. wine

Declension

Derived terms

• punane vein
• valge vein

Finnish

Verb

vein

1. first-person singular indicative past of viedä

Anagrams

• evin, vien

Gallo

Etymology

From Old French vin, from Latin v?num, from Proto-Indo-European *wóyh?nom.

Noun

vein m (plural veins)

1. wine

Icelandic

Etymology

Back-formation from veina (“to wail”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vei?n/
• Rhymes: -ei?n

Noun

vein n (genitive singular veins, nominative plural vein)

1. wail, lament

Declension

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French vain, from Latin v?nus (“empty”). The noun is derived from the adjective.

Adjective

vein

1. vain (worthless, useless)
2. vain (futile, ineffectual)
3. unfounded, false, misleading
4. (of a person, the heart, the mind, etc.) foolish, gullible

Alternative forms

• veine, veigne, veiin, veiine, ven, vain, vaine, wein, wain, waine

Descendants

• English: vain
• Scots: vane, vain, vaine

Noun

vein (uncountable)

1. something that is worthless or futile
2. idleness, triviality

Alternative forms

• weine; wan, wane (Northern); feinne (Southwestern)

Descendants

• English: vain

References

• “vein, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “vein, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Noun

vein (plural veines)

1. Alternative form of veine (“vein”)

Etymology 3

Adverb

vein

1. Alternative form of fain