dwell

CEFRC1

/dwɛl/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To live in a particular place.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    A brief pause in the motion of part of a mechanism to allow an operation to be completed.

Examples

  • I will not dwell any longer upon this subject.

  • In a past-oriented society, people dwell on the past and on tradition.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meaning

  1. A planned delay in a timed control program.

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A period of time in which a system or component remains in a given state.

  2. 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).

More examples

In context

  • Don't dwell on your past mistakes!

  • Stop dwelling on the past!

  • I am fully resolved to go dwell in another house.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Many species of fish blank in the deep, dark trenches of the ocean.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

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”).