WALLOW

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does wallow mean? 

• WALLOW (noun)
  The noun WALLOW has 2 senses:

1. a puddle where animals go to wallow

2. an indolent or clumsy rolling about

  Familiarity information: WALLOW used as a noun is rare.

• WALLOW (verb)
  The verb WALLOW has 5 senses:

1. devote oneself entirely to something; indulge in to an immoderate degree, usually with pleasure

2. roll around

3. rise up as if in waves

4. be ecstatic with joy

5. delight greatly in

  Familiarity information: WALLOW used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WALLOW (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A puddle where animals go to wallow

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("wallow" is a kind of...):

mud puddle (a puddle of mud)

Derivation:

wallow (roll around)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An indolent or clumsy rolling about

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

a good wallow in the water

Hypernyms ("wallow" is a kind of...):

axial motion; axial rotation; roll (rotary motion of an object around its own axis)

Derivation:

wallow (roll around)

• WALLOW (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they wallow    ... he / she / it wallows   
Past simple: wallowed   
Past participle: wallowed   
-ing form: wallowing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Devote oneself entirely to something; indulge in to an immoderate degree, usually with pleasure

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Context example:

wallow in your sorrows

Hypernyms (to "wallow" is one way to...):

indulge (give free rein to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Roll around

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

wallow; welter

Context example:

pigs were wallowing in the mud

Hypernyms (to "wallow" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

wallow (an indolent or clumsy rolling about)

wallow (a puddle where animals go to wallow)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Rise up as if in waves

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

billow; wallow

Context example:

smoke billowed up into the sky

Hypernyms (to "wallow" is one way to...):

soar; soar up; soar upwards; surge; zoom (rise rapidly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wallow"):

cloud (billow up in the form of a cloud)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Sense 4

Meaning:

Be ecstatic with joy

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

rejoice; triumph; wallow

Hypernyms (to "wallow" is one way to...):

be on cloud nine; exult; jump for joy; walk on air (feel extreme happiness or elation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something PP

Sense 5

Meaning:

Delight greatly in

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Context example:

wallow in your success!

Hypernyms (to "wallow" is one way to...):

delight; enjoy; revel (take delight in)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

The world belongs to the strong—to the strong who are noble as well and who do not wallow in the swine-trough of trade and exchange.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Oh, how simple it would all have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo and wallowed all over it.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The case is so hopeless, and I feel that I am wallowing in such a bog of nonsense, that I give up all idea of getting out, and abandon myself to my fate.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He stamped them into the snow under him in the wallowing struggle.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The cabin was small, to begin with, and to move around, as I was compelled to, was not made easier by the schooner’s violent pitching and wallowing.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But I could have easily vindicated humankind from the imputation of singularity upon the last article, if there had been any swine in that country (as unluckily for me there were not), which, although it may be a sweeter quadruped than a Yahoo, cannot, I humbly conceive, in justice, pretend to more cleanliness; and so his honour himself must have owned, if he had seen their filthy way of feeding, and their custom of wallowing and sleeping in the mud.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Then the tribute the mob paid him was a sorry tribute indeed, for that same mob had wallowed "Ephemera" into the mire.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He had broken through the melting snow crust, and wallowed, while the snowshoe rabbits had skimmed along on top lightly as ever.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I wallow in words.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And all the while, rolling, plunging, climbing the moving mountains and falling and wallowing in the foaming valleys, the schooner Ghost was fighting her way farther and farther into the heart of the Pacific—and I was on her.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)