Meaning of waulk | Babel Free

Definitions

to make cloth (especially tweed in Scotland) denser and more felt-like by soaking and beating.

transitive

Equivalents

Examples

“The frame on which the cloth is waulked is a board⟳ some twelve to twenty-four feet long and about two feet broad, grooved lengthwise along its surface.”

“1992, Diana Gabaldon, Dragonfly in Amber, Random House Group (Arrow Books), page 590, I hid a smile⟳ at the mention⟳ of wool waulking. Alone among the Highland farms, I was sure, the women of Lailybroch waulked their wool not only to the old traditional chants but also to the rhythms of Moliére and Piron.”

“Here, we compare⟳ waulking songs and shanties to see⟳ how they operated in bringing women and men, respectively, into a sense⟳ of close⟳ alignment.”

CEFR level