wallow

wallow, welter, grovel can imply heavy clumsy movement and, when the reference is to man, a debased, pitiable, or ignoble condition.

Wallow basically implies a lurching or rolling to and fro (as of a pig in the mire or a ship in the trough of a wave)

{

whenever the animals grew hot and tired, they would lie down and wallow— Heiser

}

{

a jeep came wallowing through the mud— Mailer

}

In extended use the term may suggest the state of an animal wallowing in mud and then variously imply complete self-abandonment

{

wallowing in self-pity

}

or absorption

{

enjoyed sitting . . . and wallowing in the sensual melodies— Osbert Sitwell

}

or helpless involvement

{

the economic catastrophe in which they were . . . wallowing—J. P. O'Donnell

}

or especially sensual enjoyment and indifference to the defilement or degradation that the condition suggests

{

publicly wallowed in his infamies— Merle Miller

}

{

in port Rootes would roar off to the fleshpots, in which he would wallow noisily until an hour before takeoff— Theodore Sturgeon

}

Welter is often employed in place of wallow, but it frequently carries a stronger implication of rolling or tossing helplessly or confusedly or at the mercy of the elements or other external forces

{

he must not float upon his watery bier unwept, and welter to the parching wind— Milton

}

{

beneath the weltering of the restless tide— Shelley

}

{

the mass of the people were weltering in shocking poverty whilst a handful of owners wallowed in millions— Shaw

}

Welter, however, may not always imply movement, as when it suggests the position of one who has been killed and lies soaked in blood

{

they lie—the fifty corpses— weltering in their blood— Mitchell

}

{

score technical successes, even if their backers welter in red ink— Gabriel

}

Grovel implies a crawling or wriggling with face close to the ground (as in abject fear, awe, self-abasement, or complete humiliation or degradation)

{

upon thy belly groveling thou shalt go, and dust shalt eat all the days of thy life— Milton

}

{

one moment he towered in imagination, the next he groveled in fear— G. D. Brown

}

Analogous words: crawl, *creep: defile, pollute, *contaminate, taint: *debase, debauch, corrupt, deprave, pervert

Contrasted words: soar, mount, ascend, *rise