Other forms: welding, welded, welds
To weld is to join two pieces of metal by melting them together. Weld the joint, a welded seam, welding torch.
The metals are fused rather than glued or bolted, so a good weld is as strong as the parent metal — which is why welded structures can be lighter than riveted ones and why weld failures are so serious. Figuratively, to weld a group together is to unite them firmly. Note welder, welding; and that the word is an alteration of well, meaning to boil up.
1verbweldTo join two pieces of metal by melting them together.
“The mechanic welded a new piece of steel over the hole in the car's floor.”
2verbuniteTo unite a group firmly.
“The shared danger welded the soldiers into a close team.”
weld is a joining of metal.
Weld is an alteration of well, in the old sense of boiling or rising up, from Middle English wellen. The plant called weld, a dye source, is a separate word.
Anglo-Norman
wold
Proto-Germanic
*waizdaz
Proto-West Germanic
*waiʀd
Old English
*weald
Middle English
welde
English, today
weld
From Middle English welde, wolde, from Old English weald, weard, variant form of wād, Proto-West Germanic waiʀd, from Proto-Germanic waizdaz. Alternatively reborrowed from or contaminated by Anglo-Norman wold, wolde (compare Old French guaide). a doublet of woad. Dutch wouw is derived from the same basic form with -l-.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA