ppl. a. Obs. exc. arch.
† 1. Of handsome or well-favored appearance; good-looking; also, robust, healthy. Obs.
c. 1369. Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 452. Than founde I sytte euen vpright A wonder welfaryng knyght.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 240. Sche … thoghte hou nevere creature Was so wel farende as was he.
c. 1400. 26 Pol. Poems, ii. 51. Welfaryng men of armes.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VI. i. 184. Hym thought he sawe neuer … soo wel farynge a man.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VI. clvi. (1811), 144. He was fayre and welfarynge of body, and sterne of looke and of face.
1536. Pilgr. Tale, 170, in Thynne’s Animadv., 82. Ther I spyed walkyng a comely pryst, and a welfaryng.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 47/3. The entralles of a sownde and welfaring man.
† 2. Couched in proper or appropriate terms. Obs.
a. 1400. Isumbras, 333. A chartir was mad fulle wele farande,… That thofe he never come in his lande, That scho solde qwene bee.
3. arch. Doing well, prosperous.
The spelling indicates association with welfare.
1888. Doughty, Arabia Deserta, II. 116. If only his Lord would leave him here other two or three years!—then would he be fully at his ease, and a welfaring person.
