welter

Etymology 1

From Middle English welteren, equivalent to welt + -er (frequentative suffix). Cognates include German Low German weltern (“to wallow; roll”), Old Norse velta (Danish vælte), German wälzen, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌻𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (waltjan). Akin to wallow and Latin volvō.

noun

1. A general confusion or muddle, especially of a large number of items.
   Most of these allegations have already been published; she has denied them all. […] With the welter of claims and counter-claims and evidence that has been contradictory and based on hearsay, it is unlikely that the Truth Commission will come to any significant conclusion. December 8, 1997, Peter Hawthorne, “Mugger of the Nation?”, in Time
   They use these words to express a welter of opinions on what they think is good or bad, right or wrong, and all too readily wail ‘It's not fair!’. 2022, Morten H. Christiansen, Nick Chater, chapter 3, in The Language Game[…]
2. A tossing or rolling about.

verb

1. (intransitive) To roll around; to wallow.
   And behind, the tempest fleet Hurries on with lightning feet, Riving sail, and cord, and plank, Till the ship has almost drank Death from the o’er-brimming deep; And sinks down, down, like that sleep When the dreamer seems to be Weltering through eternity; 1819, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lines Written among the Euganean Hills, lines 11–18
   You must request their advice how to avert this tremendous evil: you must weep over the decrepid fathers of families, the virtuous wives, the innocent children, the priests at the altar, with God in their mouths, weltering in their blood. 1824, Walter Savage Landor, “Conversation XVI. The Emperor Alexander and Capo d’Istria”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume 1, London: Taylor and Hessey, page 314
2. (intransitive, figurative) To revel, luxuriate.
   1537, Hugh Latimer, Sermon III, Preached to the Convocation of the Clergy, in The Sermons of Hugh Latimer, London: J. Scott, 1783, Volume I, p. 38, When we welter in pleasures and idleness, then we eat and drink with drunkards.
   These wisards weltre in welths waues, pampred in pleasures deepe, They han fatte kernes, and leany knaues, 1579, Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender, “Ivlye” [“July”], lines 197-198, in Ernest de Sélincourt (ed.) Spenser’s Minor Poems, Oxford: Clarendon Press,1910, p. 73
3. (intransitive, of waves, billows) To rise and fall, to tumble over, to roll.
   Such Musick (as ’tis said) Before was never made, But when of old the sons of morning sung, While the Creator Great His constellations set, And the well-ballanc’t world on hinges hung, And cast the dark foundations deep, And bid the weltring waves their oozy channel keep. 1645, John Milton, “On the Morning of Christ's Nativity”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, London: Humphrey Moseley, Stanza XII, pp. 6-7
   There, waves that, hardly weltering, die away, Tip their smooth ridges with a softer ray; 1793, William Wordsworth, “An Evening Walk. Addressed to a Young Lady”, in The Poetical Works of Wordsworth, New York: John W. Lovell, published 1800, page 17
   Many a fixed unblinking star Unto them that wandering are 1835, Richard Chenevix Trench, “The Descent of the Rhone”, in The Story of Justin Martyr and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, page 78
   The circle of weltering froth at the base of the Horseshoe, emerging from the dead white vapours—absolute white, as moonless midnight is absolute black—which muffle impenetrably the crash of the river upon the lower bed, melts slowly into the darker shades of green. 1883, Henry James, “XX. Niagara”, in Portraits of Places, London: Macmillan, page 369
   All the morn old Noah marvelled greatly At this weltering world that shone so stately, Drowning deep the rivers and the plains. 1918, Siegfried Sassoon, “Noah”, in The Old Huntsman, and Other Poems, New York: Dutton, page 58

Etymology 2

adj

1. (of horsemen) Heavyweight.
   a welter race

Etymology 3

Compare wilt (intransitive verb).

verb

1. To wither; to wilt.
   1860, Isaac Taylor, Ultimate Civilization, and Other Essays, London: Bell & Dalday, “Ultimate Civilization,” Part I, IV, p. 40, But look now into the weltered hearts and blighted memories of those whom we have gathered from out of the thousands of the lost and wretched.