wheal means A small raised swelling on the skin, often itchy, caused by a blow from a whip or an insect bite etc. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 78 out of 100.
wheal is pronounced /wiːl/.
Etymology
From Middle English whele (“boil”), from Old English *hwele (“boil”); related to Old English hwelian (“to fester, ulcerate”). Compare also Old English hwelca, hwylca (“an inflamed swelling, pustule”).
noun
- A small raised swelling on the skin, often itchy, caused by a blow from a whip or an insect bite etc.“A Perſon of Honour, of a full Body abounding with ſharp Humours, was ſeized with an Herpes on his right Leg. […] [I]t inflamed and ſwelled very much, many Wheals aroſe, and fretted one into another, with great Excoriation.”
- A mine.“The four last-mentioned mines, Wheal Crowndale, Wheal Crebor, East Liscombe, and Wheal Tamar, are on the same lode, which ranges as usual from east to west, and are included in a space of about four miles in length.”