Definition of "welcome"

welcome

/ˈwɛlkəm/

adjective
comparative more welcome, superlative most welcome
1. Whose arrival is a cause of joy; received with gladness; admitted willingly to the house, entertainment, or company.
  Quotations
  When the glad soul is made Heaven's welcome guest.
  1782, William Cowper, The Progress of Error
2. Producing gladness.
  Quotations
  “A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. […] ”
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
3. Free to have or enjoy gratuitously.
  Quotations
  As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish, but I would not go out of my way to protest against it. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get. I would very gladly make mine over to him if I could.
  1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company
interjection
1. Greeting given upon someone's arrival.
2. (nonstandard, especially Southern US) Ellipsis of you're welcome.
noun
plural welcomes
1. The act of greeting someone’s arrival, especially by saying "Welcome!"; reception.
2. The utterance of such a greeting.
3. Kind reception of a guest or newcomer.
  Quotations
  Truth finds an entrance and a welcome too.
  1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727
  the warmest welcome at an inn
  1735, William Shenstone, Written at an inn at Henley
4. The state of being a welcome guest.
  Quotations
  The townspeople crossed freely from bank to bank, and it stayed that way until breakup in March or April or, in years when winter outstayed its welcome, maybe even May.
  1992, Dana Stabenow, A Cold Day for Murder, page 42
verb
third-person singular simple present welcomes, present participle welcoming, simple past and past participle welcomed
1. To affirm or greet the arrival of someone, especially by saying "Welcome!".
  Quotations
  But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, […] . By the time we reached the house we were thanking our stars she had come. Mrs. Cooke came out from under the port-cochere to welcome her.
  1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
2. To accept something willingly or gladly.
  Quotations
  CPS MerseyCheshire welcomes the jailing of Helen Dove who conned her friend into giving up her job for a dream post that never existed. Kimberley McDonnell lost around £50,000 because of the fraudster.
  2020 January 29, “Woman jailed for conning her friend into giving up her job for a dream post that never existed”, in CPS Mersey-Cheshire‎, London: Crown Prosecution Service, retrieved 2020-04-02
  Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang welcomed cooperation with South Korea. Audio (US)(file)
  2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)

Definition of "welcome"

welcome

adjective

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interjection

noun

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verb

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