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dwell

used in a sentence
3 meanings
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1  —as in:
Don't dwell on it.
Definition to think, communicate, or let attention stay on (or return to) something for a prolonged period
  • Don't dwell on the past.
dwell = think or talk about something longer than seems appropriate
Other Uses (with this meaning)
  • Her students were ready to move on, but she dwelled on about Chapter 7.
    • dwelled = focused for a long time
  • I will not dwell on the experience because it causes us all terrible discomfort.
    Lois Lowry  --  The Giver
    • dwell = talk longer
  • Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.
    Jane Austen  --  Mansfield Park
    • dwell = talk excessively (about something)
  • It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.
    J.K. Rowling  --  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
    • dwell = think excessively about
  • I didn't have time to dwell on my worries.
    Kiera Cass  --  The Selection
    • dwell = think excessively about
  • I've got to stop dwelling on this.
    Anne Frank  --  The Diary of a Young Girl
    • dwelling = letting attention stay on something
  • Fain would I dwell on form.
    William Shakespeare  --  Romeo and Juliet
    • dwell = focus (let attention stay)
  • Jem was not one to dwell on past defeats: it seemed the only message he got from Atticus was insight into the art of cross examination.
    Harper Lee  --  To Kill a Mockingbird
    • dwell = think excessively about
  • So forcibly did he dwell upon this symbol ... that it assumed new terrors in their imagination, and seemed to derive its scarlet hue from the flames of the infernal pit.
    Nathaniel Hawthorne  --  The Scarlet Letter
dwell = keep talking about

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google®Dictionary list — Onelook.com®
2  —as in:
It dwells in the forest.
Definition make one's home in; or to live in; or to stay (in a place)
  • The creature dwells in the forest.
dwells = lives in
Other Uses (with this meaning)
  • There family has dwelled in that valley for ten generations.
    • dwelled = lived
  • There in captivity he lets them dwell
    John Milton  --  Paradise Lost
    • dwell = live there
  •   I do remember an apothecary—
      And hereabouts he dwells,
    William Shakespeare  --  Romeo and Juliet
    • dwells = lives
  • There have been from the loins of this very one great men and good women, and their graves make sacred the earth where alone this foulness can dwell.
    Bram Stoker  --  Dracula
    • dwell = live
  •   You might belong in Gryffindor,
      Where dwell the brave at heart,
    J.K. Rowling  --  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
    • dwell = live (make their home)
  • ...the woman has been a dweller here in Boston.
    Nathaniel Hawthorne  --  The Scarlet Letter
    • dweller = one who lives in a place
  • Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it?
    George Orwell  --  Animal Farm
    • dwell = live
  • The cloves and saccharine, themselves disgusting enough in their sickly way, could not disguise the flat oily smell; and what was worst of all was that the smell of gin, which dwelt with him night and day, was inextricably mixed up in his mind with the smell of those.
    George Orwell  --  1984
    • dwelt = stayed
  • As the great arctic explorer and Nobel laureate Fridtjof Nansen points out, "these remarkable voyages were .... undertaken chiefly from the wish to find lonely places, where these anchorites might dwell in peace, undisturbed by the turmoil and temptations of the world."
    Jon Krakauer  --  Into the Wild
dwell = live

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google®Dictionary list — Onelook.com®
3  —as in:
a modest dwelling
Definition a house or shelter in which someone lives
  • There is a second dwelling unit on the property.
dwelling = home
Other Uses (with this meaning)
  • We searched the entire valley and did not find her dwelling.
    • dwelling = home
  • Go immediately to your dwelling at the conclusion of Training Hours each day.
    Lois Lowry  --  The Giver
    • dwelling = home
  • Crumbling stone dwellings of the long-vanished Kayenta Anasazi, the creators of this rock art, nestle in protective nooks.
    Jon Krakauer  --  Into the Wild
    • dwellings = homes
  • ...they reached the dwelling of Governor Bellingham.
    Nathaniel Hawthorne  --  The Scarlet Letter
    • dwelling = home
  • (every ruin in India becomes sooner or later a dwelling place of snakes, and the old summerhouse was alive with cobras)
    Rudyard Kipling  --  The Jungle Book
    • dwelling = home
  • It was only on very rare occasions that one saw inside the dwelling-places of the Inner Party, or even penetrated into the quarter of the town where they lived.
    George Orwell  --  1984
    • dwelling = living
  • Unlike Nadia, he felt in part guilty that they and their fellow residents were occupying a home that was not their own, and guilty also at the visible deterioration brought on by their presence, the presence of over fifty inhabitants in a single dwelling.
    Moshin Hamid  --  Exit West
    • dwelling = home
  • in the war of 1812, her dwelling was set on fire by English soldiers ... when she was away,
    Henry David Thoreau  --  Walden
    • dwelling = house
  • ...and I came at long last to the dwelling of Saruman.
    J.R.R. Tolkien  --  The Fellowship of the Ring
dwelling = home (or place in which someone lives)

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google®Dictionary list — Onelook.com®
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