make the welkin ring

English

Alternative forms

• ring the welkins

Verb

make the welkin ring (third-person singular simple present makes the welkin ring, present participle making the welkin ring, simple past and past participle made the welkin ring)

1. To make a loud noise.
   • 1953 April, J. M. Dunn, “Memories of the L.N.W.R. 0-8-4 Tank Engines”, in Railway Magazine, page 237:

     The 0-8-4 with its 13 six-wheel coaches generally managed to keep "neck-and-neck" with the Tredegar 0-6-0 and its load of five or six coaches, but the combined effort made the welkin ring and excitement reigned among both the train-crews and passengers.

2. (idiomatic) To celebrate or revel.
   • 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter IV, page 44:

     There was nothing like that spirit which, when the heart goes with the decree of the ruler, makes the welkin ring with its unregulated rejoicings.