dwell
Plural: dwells
Verb
Verb Forms: dwelt, dwelled, dwelling, dwells
- To live in a particular place; to linger or focus on.
- think moodily or anxiously about something
- originate (in)
- "The problems dwell in the social injustices in this country"
- inhabit or live in; be an inhabitant of
- "this kind of fish dwells near the bottom of the ocean"
- exist or be situated within
- come back to
- "Don't dwell on the past"
- To live; to reside.
- To linger (on); to remain fixated.
- To be in a given state.
- To abide; to remain; to continue.
Noun
- A period of time in which a system or component remains in a given state.
- A brief pause in the motion of part of a mechanism to allow an operation to be completed.
- A planned delay in a timed control program.
- In a petrol engine, the period of time the ignition points are closed to let current flow through the ignition coil in between each spark. This is measured as an angle in degrees around the camshaft in the distributor which controls the points, for example in a 4-cylinder engine it might be 55° (spark at 90° intervals, points closed for 55° between each).
Examples
- Some Scrabble players dwell on creating the longest word, even if shorter, high-value plays exist.
- Steven, stop dwelling on the past! But you stole my kidney!
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English dwellen (“delay, live, remain, persist”), from Old English dwellan (“to mislead, deceive; be led into error, stray”), from Proto-Germanic *dwaljaną (“to hold up, delay; hesitate”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwelH- (“to whirl, swirl, blur, obfuscate”), which is cognate with Old Norse dvelja and related to Proto-Germanic *dwelaną (“to go astray”), which underwent semantic change in its descendants. Cognates include Danish dvæle (“to linger, dwell”) and Swedish dväljas (“to dwell, reside”).
Scrabble Score: 9
dwell: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Worddwell: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
dwell: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary