a. Obs. Forms: 1 wlacu, -o, wlæc, 3 wlec(c)h, wleach, 3–4 wlach, 4 wlak, 5 wlake. [OE. wlæc, wlacu (an orig. u-stem) = MLG. wlak lukewarm (whence wlacheit ‘tepor’); cf. OS. wlakon, MLG. wla(c)ken to be tepid; the ulterior relations are doubtful. For the phonology of the final consonant cf. FRECK a. (ME. frek, frech).] Lukewarm, tepid; also fig. Also advb. in wlach hot (cf. MLG. wlakwarm).
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., xxxvii. 269. Ða ful oft beoð mid wlacum watre ʓelacnode. Ibid., lviii. 447. Se ðonne bið wearm, nalles wlaco, ðe god ʓeornlice onginð, & eac ʓeendað.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 151. Ðe wop he man wepeð for his emcristenes wowe cumeð of þe wlache heorte.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 400. Forði þet tu ert ase wlech bitweonen two, nouðer cold ne hot.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., 319/695. Ȝif þov nimst riȝt puyr hot watur and dost cold þar-to, Þov miȝt it makien eucne wlach [MS. Harl. wlak].
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), VII. 522. In comparisoun to that [hote brennyng] lyȝe, oure fier is but as it were wlache hoot.
c. 1450. Bk. Hawking, in Rel. Ant., I. 304. Kepe it with wlake wyn unto the tyme.
