subs. (colloquial).—A youth, UNLICKED CUB (q.v.); PUPPY (q.v.): in contempt. As verb (vulgar) = to be brought to bed, to PUP (q.v.).
1593. SHAKESPEARE, Titus Andronicus, ii. 3. Two of thy WHELPS, fell curs of bloody kind.
1854. DICKENS, Hard Times, iii. 7. On one of the back benches … sat the villainous WHELP, sulky to the last, whom he had the misery to call his son.
2. (old).—A ship of some kind.
1630–40. The Court and Times of Charles the First, II. 186. Captain Plumley was sent thither with one of the ships royal and two WHELPS to seek out Nutt the pirate.
1635. [BRERETON, Travels, 164.] Aboard one of the king’s ships called the ninth WHELP.
