DWELL (dwelt)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: dwelt   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dwell mean? 

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

1. think moodily or anxiously about something

2. originate (in)

3. be an inhabitant of or reside in

4. exist or be situated within

5. come back to

  Familiarity information: DWELL used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DWELL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they dwell    ... he / she / it dwells   
Past simple: dwelled    / dwelt   
Past participle: dwelled    / dwelt   
-ing form: dwelling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Think moodily or anxiously about something

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

brood; dwell

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

care; worry (be concerned with)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Also:

dwell on (delay)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Originate (in)

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

consist; dwell; lie; lie in

Context example:

The problems dwell in the social injustices in this country

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

be; exist (have an existence, be extant)

Sentence frame:

Something is ----ing PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

Be an inhabitant of or reside in

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

dwell; inhabit; live; populate

Context example:

deer are populating the woods

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

be (occupy a certain position or area; be somewhere)

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

tenant (occupy as a tenant)

neighbor; neighbour (live or be located as a neighbor)

lodge in; occupy; reside (live (in a certain place))

domicile; domiciliate; reside; shack (make one's home in a particular place or community)

people (furnish with people)

overpopulate (cause to have too great a population)

cohabit; live together; shack up (share living quarters; usually said of people who are not married and live together as a couple)

lodge (be a lodger; stay temporarily)

bivouac; camp; camp out; encamp; tent (live in or as if in a tent)

nest (inhabit a nest, usually after building)

board; room (live and take one's meals at or in)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

dweller (a person who inhabits a particular place)

dwelling (housing that someone is living in)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Exist or be situated within

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

dwell; inhabit

Context example:

Strange notions inhabited her mind

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

be; exist (have an existence, be extant)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Come back to

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

dwell; harp

Context example:

She is always harping on the same old things

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

ingeminate; iterate; reiterate; repeat; restate; retell (to say, state, or perform again)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

 Context examples 

These were words which could not but dwell with her.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Most of the exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, that have been imaged to date dwell in disks similar to the one around AWI0005x3s.

(A Potential New Hunting Ground for Exoplanets, NASA)

You said that you dwelt upon the fact— True!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Molony said "Nobody has investigated these marks before or dwelled upon them."

(UK documentary claims fire weakened RMS Titanic, Wikinews)

So he went up to a neighbouring hill, where a shepherd dwelt, and borrowed his old frock, and thus passed unknown into the town.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Mrs. Reed's hands still lay on her work inactive: her eye of ice continued to dwell freezingly on mine.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Anxious as were all her conjectures on this point, it was not, however, the one on which she dwelt most.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

There have been precious few sightings since, but indigenous wildlife rangers say they have photographed one of the nocturnal, ground-dwelling birds in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

(Aboriginal Rangers Find Evidence of One of Australia’s Rarest Birds, VOA)

Julia's elopement could affect her comparatively but little; she was amazed and shocked; but it could not occupy her, could not dwell on her mind.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Some scientists believe the first fliers were tree-dwelling dinosaurs who could parachute and glide before they could fly, while some say flight grew up from the ground, from runners.

(Scientific study suggests dinosaurs flapped their wings as they ran, Wikinews)