Definition of "whelp"

whelp¹

/wɛlp/

noun
plural whelps
1. A young offspring of a canid (ursid, felid, pinniped), especially of a dog or a wolf, the young of a bear or similar mammal (lion, tiger, seal); a pup, wolf cub.
  Quotations
  […] And fared like a furious wyld Beare, / Whose whelpes are ſtolne away, ſhe being otherwhere.
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
  Pro. […] Then was this Iſland / (Saue for the Son, that he[sic] did littour heere, / A frekelld whelpe, hag-borne) not honour'd with / A humane ſhape.
  1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii], page 4
2. (derogatory) An insolent youth; a mere child.
  Quotations
  That awkward whelp with his money bags would have made his entrance.
  July 13, 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian
  Thy backside is whole and ungobbled, thou ungrateful whelp!
  October 22, 2011, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "Luna Eclipsed"
3. (obsolete) A kind of ship.
4. One of several wooden strips to prevent wear on a windlass on a clipper-era ship.
5. A tooth on a sprocket wheel (compare sprocket and cog).

whelp²

verb
third-person singular simple present whelps, present participle whelping, simple past and past participle whelped
1. (transitive, intransitive, of she-dog, she-wolf, vixen, etc.) To give birth.

whelp³

interjection
1. Alternative form of welp (“well”)