Library / English Dictionary

DWELL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: dwelt   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Think moodily or anxiously about something

Synonyms:

brood; dwell

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

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

care; worry (be concerned with)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Also:

dwell on (delay)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Come back to

Example:

She is always harping on the same old things

Synonyms:

dwell; harp

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

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

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

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

Be an inhabitant of or reside in

Example:

deer are populating the woods

Synonyms:

dwell; inhabit; live; populate

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

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:

Originate (in)

Example:

The problems dwell in the social injustices in this country

Synonyms:

consist; dwell; lie; lie in

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

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

be; exist (have an existence, be extant)

Sentence frame:

Something is ----ing PP

Sense 5

Meaning:

Exist or be situated within

Example:

Strange notions inhabited her mind

Synonyms:

dwell; inhabit

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

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

be; exist (have an existence, be extant)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

Called odilorhabdins, or ODLs, the antibiotics are produced by symbiotic bacteria found in soil-dwelling nematode worms that colonize insects for food.

(A New Class of Antibiotics to Combat Drug Resistance, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Tree sloths are among the most emblematic tree-dwelling mammals.

(Putting the sloth in sloths: Arboreal lifestyle drives slow pace, NSF)

These are the scenes which my mind and my pen will dwell upon in every detail at some future day.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

How different, he thought, from the atmosphere of beauty and repose of the house wherein Ruth dwelt.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Well, there’s no need for me to dwell on that part of it.

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

Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell.

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

In pleading, they studiously avoid entering into the merits of the cause; but are loud, violent, and tedious, in dwelling upon all circumstances which are not to the purpose.

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

You slur over work of the utmost finesse and delicacy, in order to dwell upon sensational details which may excite, but cannot possibly instruct, the reader.

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

As for the moral turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence, I cannot, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She expressed her gratitude again, but it was too painful a subject to each, to be dwelt on farther.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)