Wealden

a. [ AS. weald, wald, a forest, a wood. So called because this formation occurs in the wealds, or woods, of Kent and Sussex. See Weald. ] (Geol.) Of or pertaining to the lowest division of the Cretaceous formation in England and on the Continent, which overlies the Oolitic series. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. [ So called from Petrus Waldus, or Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, who founded this sect about a. d. 1170. ] (Eccl. Hist.) A sect of dissenters from the ecclesiastical system of the Roman Catholic Church, who in the 13th century were driven by persecution to the valleys of Piedmont, where the sect survives. They profess substantially Protestant principles. [ 1913 Webster ]