wallow

• POS: Noun, Verb (intransitive)
• HYPHEN: wal=low

CIDE DICTIONARY

wallow, v. i. [OE. walwen, AS. wealwian; akin to Goth. walwjan (in comp.) to roll, L. volvere; cf. Skr. val to turn. √147. Cf. Voluble Well, n.].

•  To roll one's self about, as in mire; to tumble and roll about; to move lazily or heavily in any medium; to flounder; as, swine wallow in the mire.  [1913 Webster]

  "I may wallow in the lily beds."  [1913 Webster]
•  To live in filth or gross vice; to disport one's self in a beastly and unworthy manner.  [1913 Webster]

  "God sees a man wallowing in his native impurity."  [1913 Webster]
•  To wither; to fade.  [1913 Webster]

wallow, v. t. 

 To roll; esp., to roll in anything defiling or unclean.  Jer. vi. 26.  [1913 Webster]

wallow, n. 

•  A kind of rolling walk.  [1913 Webster]

  "One taught the toss, and one the new French wallow."  [1913 Webster]
•  Act of wallowing.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
•  A place to which an animal comes to wallow; also, the depression in the ground made by its wallowing; as, a buffalo wallow.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

wallow, v. & n.
--v.intr.
1 (esp. of an animal) roll about in mud, sand, water, etc.
2 (usu. foll. by in) indulge in unrestrained sensuality, pleasure, misery, etc. (wallows in nostalgia).
--n.
1 the act or an instance of wallowing.
2 a a place used by buffalo etc. for wallowing. b the depression in the ground caused by this.

Derivative

wallower n.

Etymology

OE walwian roll f. Gmc

THESAURUS

wallow

appreciate, baby, bask, baygall, be promiscuous, bend, blunder, bog, bottom, bottomland, bottoms, buffalo wallow, careen, career, chase women, commit adultery, cower, cringe, crouch, cuddle, debauch, delight, dissipate, everglade, falter, fen, fenland, flounce, flounder, fornicate, get down, glade, grovel, heave, hobbyhorse, hog wallow, holm, humor, hunch, hunch down, indulge, labor, lurch, luxuriate, make heavy weather, marais, marish, marsh, marshland, meadow, mere, mire, moor, moorland, morass, moss, mud, mud flat, nestle, pamper, peat bog, philander, pitch, pitch and plunge, pitch and toss, plunge, pound, quagmire, quicksand, rake, rear, reel, relish, revel, rock, roll, rollick, salt marsh, scend, scrouch down, seethe, sleep around, slob land, slough, snuggle, sough, spoil, squat, stagger, stoop, struggle, stumble, sump, swale, swamp, swampland, sway, swing, taiga, thrash about, toss, toss and tumble, toss and turn, totter, tumble, volutation, wallop, wamble, wanton, wash, welter, whore, womanize, yaw

ROGET THESAURUS

wallow

Lowness

VB be low, lie low, lie flat, underlie, crouch, slouch, wallow, grovel, lower.

Plunge

VB plunge, dip, souse, duck, dive, plump, take a plunge, take a header, make a plunge, bathe, submerge, submerse, immerse, douse, sink, engulf, send to the bottom, get out of one's depth, go to the bottom, go down like a stone, drop like a lead balloon, founder, welter, wallow.

Rotation

VB rotate, roll along, revolve, spin, turn round, circumvolve, circulate, gyre, gyrate, wheel, whirl, pirouette, twirl, trundle, troll, bowl, roll up, furl, wallow, welter, box the compass, spin like a top, spin like a teetotum, spin out.