whelpy

Like or relating to a whelp (cub or puppy).

Adjective

Like or relating to a whelp (cub or puppy).
- A small, whelpy moan escaped from her, embarrassing her. - 2015, Celine Keating, Play for Me:
- I was so nervous as I tried to hand-feed him, mixing up his whelpy drink, which has all the nutrients he would get from his mum if he were still nursing, and then trying him on slushy solid foods. - 2017, Andrea Hayes,...

From whelp + -y.

Festering or having welts or wheals; attery, purulent.
- […] the way from his breakfast room to Grandmomma's back door but as silverware and a garden spade and whelpy bee bites had not figured into his speculations […] - 1988, T. R. Pearson, The Last of how it was, page 48:
- Stunning, worst comes to worst Springer'll bind off his whelpy first draft that way. - 1999, David Markson, Springer's Progress, page 212:
- Mac is really feeling no pain, but she is lethargic and naps a couple of times a day. Also, she has a bright red, whelpy-looking rash on her upper chest around her neck. I'm going to get her some Benadryl cream, right...

Origin uncertain. Perhaps an alteration of welt + -y; or from dialectal English whelpy meaning "sour, rancid".