Wallow

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈwÉ’ləʊ/
• Rhymes: -É’ləʊ

Alternative forms

• waller eye dialect

Old English wealwian, from Proto-Germanic *walwōną.

Full definition of wallow

Verb

1. (intransitive) To roll oneself about, as in mire; to tumble and roll about; to move lazily or heavily in any medium; to flounder; as, swine wallow in the mire.Pigs wallow in the mud.
• ShakespeareI may wallow in the lily beds.
2. (intransitive) To immerse oneself in, to occupy oneself with, metaphorically.She wallowed in her misery.
• The Simpsons (TV series)With Smithers out of the picture I was free to wallow in my own crapulence.
3. (intransitive) To roll; especially, to roll in anything defiling or unclean, as a hog might do to dust its body to relieve the distress of insect biting or cool its body with mud.
4. (intransitive) To live in filth or gross vice; to behave in a beastly and unworthy manner.
• SouthGod sees a man wallowing in his native impurity.
5. (intransitive, UK, Scotland, dialect) To wither; to fade.

Usage notes

In the sense of “to immerse oneself in, to occupy oneself with”, it is almost exclusively used for self-indulgent negative emotions, particularly self-pity. See synonyms for general or positive alternatives, such as revel.

Synonyms

• (to immerse oneself in) bask, delight, indulge, luxuriate, revel, rollick

Noun

1. An instance of wallowing.
2. A pool of water or mud in which animals wallow.
3. A kind of rolling walk.

(From inflected forms of) Old English wealġ, from Proto-Germanic *walwo-. Cognate with dialectal Norwegian valg ("tasteless"). Compare waugh.

Adjective

1. (now dialectal) Tasteless, flat.