Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—W

Walk

(in Hudibras) is Colonel Hewson, so called from Gayton's tract.

To walk.
This is a remarkable word. It comes from the Anglo-Saxon wealcan (to roll); whence wealcere, a fuller of cloth. In Percy's Reliques we read-

She cursed the weaver and the walker,
The cloth that they had wrought.

To walk, therefore, is to roll along, as the machine in felting hats or fulling cloth.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Walk Chalks
Wales
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