[f. WELL sb.1]
1. slang. To defraud (one’s confederates) by embezzling part of the booty; to conceal (booty) from one’s confederates; to conceal (a portion of one’s estate) from creditors.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. (1819), s.v. Well, To well your accomplice, or put him in the well.
1823. Egan, Grose’s Dict. Vulgar Tongue, Well, to divide unfairly…. A cant phrase used by thieves, where one of the party conceals some of the booty, instead of dividing it fairly amongst his confederates.
1824. Compl. Hist. Murder Mr. Weare, 255. Probert frequently alluded to the money that was expected to be found upon Weare, and his apprehensions lest Thurtell should WELL IT (meaning keep it to himself).
1893. Illustr. Sporting & Dram. News, 22 July, 766/1. Out of the salvage of my fortune—for something had been safely ‘welled,’ you may be sure—I purchased a tricycle.
2. Naut. (See quot.)
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 450. To well the ship.—This operation [for stopping a leak], consisting in the building of a bulk-head or partition on the fore part of the leak, and caulking it, so as to confine the water within it.
