Noun (2)
unsightly whelks covered the beggar's face
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Noun
Serious shellers know to get to the beach early for prime specimens like sand dollars, whelks, and scallops.—Lisa Cericola, Southern Living, 11 Jan. 2025 Accessible by ferry from Port Aransas, which sits just across the shipping channel, this 21-mile-long island offers nothing more than pristine Gulf Coast wilderness, and keen-eyed travelers often stumble upon sand dollars, lightning whelks, angel wings, and conchs.—Nicholas Derenzo, AFAR Media, 6 Jan. 2025 Gastropods are a class of mollusks that include snails, slugs and whelks.—Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 3 Jan. 2025 On board the 30-foot Salford sailing whelk yacht, there’s silence except for the creak of ropes and gurgle of our wake.—Cnt Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, 3 Sep. 2024 However, visitors will find moon snails, conch shells, pen shells, periwinkles, whelks, and olive shells, all indigenous to the area.—Carrie Honaker, Travel + Leisure, 11 Aug. 2024 The menu is full of seaside favorites, including generous platters and seafood towers overflowing with langoustines, whelks, prawns, oysters, and lobsters.—Jade Simon, Vogue, 21 June 2024 Local specimens include lightning whelks and angel wings from the bay and lions-paw scallops and alphabet cones from the Gulf.—Robin Soslow, Miami Herald, 30 Jan. 2024 Is there something profound about making a whelk taste, quite pleasingly, like sour-cream-and-onion chips?—Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 21 Jan. 2024
Word History
Etymology
Noun (1)
Middle English welke, from Old English weoloc; akin to Middle Dutch willoc whelk and perhaps to Latin volvere to turn — more at voluble
Noun (2)
Middle English whelke, from Old English hwylca, from hwelian to suppurate
First Known Use
Noun (1)
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above
Noun (2)
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above
Time Traveler
The first known use of whelk was
before the 12th century
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