bale
/beɪl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.61 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A beacon-fire.
Archaic
noun
A rounded bundle or package of goods in a cloth cover, and corded for storage or transportation.
noun
A bundle of compressed fibers (especially hay, straw, cotton, or wool), compacted for shipping and handling and bound by twine or wire.
noun
A measurement of hay equal to 10 flakes. Approximately 70-90 lbs (32-41 kg).
Example Sentences
- "That other ſwayne, like aſhes deadly pale, Lay in the lap of death, rewing his wretched bale."
- "Rome, and her Rats, are at the point of battell, The one ſide muſt haue baile."
- "Ffor if you wold comfort me with a kisse, Then were I brought ffrom bale to blisse, Noe longer here wold I lye."
- "So having made up my mind, I packed up in bales a quantity of precious stuffs suited for sea-trade and repaired with them from Baghdad-city to Bassorah-town, where I found ship ready for sea, and in her a company of considerable merchants."
- "What I claim therein as new, and desire to be secured by Letters Patent is the within described apparatus for forming a bale of cotton under pressure on a spindle or revolving rod,..."
- "The San Diego Freeway traffic is as slow as a bale of turtles."
Etymology
From Middle English bale (“evil”), from Old English bealu, from Proto-West Germanic *balu, from Proto-Germanic *balwą. Cognate with Low German bal- (“bad, ill”), Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌻𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (balweins, “torture”), Old High German balo (“destruction”), Old Norse bǫl (“disaster”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: bale, bealu, *balu, *balwą, bǣl, *bēlą
Usage
- Uncountable
- Obsolete
- Archaic
- Transitive verb
- British usage