Sc. and north. Forms: 1 wǽl, 3 wel, 4, 6 wele (4–5 welle), 6 vele, 6–7 weill, 7 weell, 8–9 wiel, weil, wheel, 9 weal, 4, 7–9 weel. [OE. wǽl masc. and neut. = WFris. wiel, OLow Frankish wâl (pl. wâlâ), ‘abyssus’, MDu. wael (Flem. weele), MLG. wêl (LG. weel, weele, whence mod.G. wehl masc., wehle fem.).] A deep pool; a deep place in a river or the sea; a whirlpool or eddy.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., Envoy 469. Ac se wæl wunað on weres breostum … diop & stille.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., ix. (Z.), 52. Hic gurges þis wael, þæt is, deop wæter.
c. 1200. Ormin, 19690. Godd … Þatt mihhte hemm alle … Inn helle wel bisennkenn.
c. 1275. XI Pains of Hell, 89, in O. E. Misc., 142. Or vych a wrm þat atter bereþ … Ifulled is þat fule pool…. Hwenne þe feondes heom [lost souls] forleteþ, Snaken and neddren heom imeteþ, And dreyeð heom in-to a wel Þer heo þolyeþ al vnsel.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2903. Bituixand þai sink in þat wele par neuer man sank þat was o sele.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter xxxv. 9. And with welle [Harl. weel] of þi liking ai Sal tou drinke þam [Vulg. torrente voluptatis tuae potabis eos].
1483. Cath. Angl., 413/1. A Welle, gurges.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. ii. 13. Tybir flowand soft and esely, Wyth swirland welis [L. verticibus rapidis] and mekle ȝallow sand.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. p. xlviii. The gretest vele heirof is namit Corbrek; for it will othir sink, or ellis draw ane schip to it, howbeit it be distant thairfra ane mile.
1553. Rec. Burgh Lanark (1893), 26. Sir Jhone Cunygam … settis the tan half of his bait gangand apone Sant Katrynis weill in Clydisholm to Wylyam Pumfra.
1599. Alex. Hume, Hymnes, iii. 211. The bels and circles on the weills, Throw lowpping of the trouts.
1674. Ray, N. C. Words, Weel, Lanca, a whirlpool.
1683. in Nairne Peerage Evid. (1874), 18. From the said foord of Gellie to the weell of Buckmenem.
1786. Burns, Halloween, xxv. Whyles owre a linn the burnie plays,… Whyles in a wiel it dimpl’t.
a. 1800. Rare Willie, viii. in Child, Ballads, IV. 182/2. In the deepest weil in a’ the burn, Oh, there she fand her Willie!
1817. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxvi. The deep waters and weils o’ the Avondow.
1818. W. Phillips, Geol., 113. The pool of still water or wheel, above the falls.
1834. Hogg, Dom. Manners Scott (1909), 59. In a few minutes we reached Gleddie’s Weal, the deepest pool in all that part of Tweed.
1909. Jedburgh Gaz., 28 May, 3/7. A large, deep pool known as the ‘Old Weal.’
b. attrib.
1703. Thoresby, Lett. to Ray, A Wheels-pit, whirl-pool.
a. 1800. Young Hunting, xvii. in Child, Ballads, II. 153/1. They douked in at ae weil-heid, And out aye at the other.
