gale

See also: Gale, galé, and galè

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡeɪl/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪl
  • Homophone: Gail

Etymology 1

From Middle English galen, from Old English galan (“to sing, enchant, call, cry, scream; sing charms, practice incantation”), from Proto-Germanic *galaną (“to roop, sing, charm”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel- (“to shout, scream, charm away”). Cognate with Danish gale (“to crow”), Swedish gala (“to crow”), Icelandic gala (“to sing, chant, crow”), Dutch galm (“echo, sound, noise”). Related to yell.

Verb

gale (third-person singular simple present gales, present participle galing, simple past galed or gole, past participle galed or galen)

  1. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To sing; charm; enchant.
    • Court of Love
      Can he cry and gale.
  2. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To cry; groan; croak.
  3. (intransitive, of a person, now chiefly dialectal) To talk.
  4. (intransitive, of a bird, Scotland) To call.
  5. (transitive, now chiefly dialectal) To sing; utter with musical modulations.

Etymology 2

From Middle English gale (“a wind, breeze”), probably of North Germanic origin, related to Icelandic gola (“a breeze”), Danish gal (“furious, mad”),[1] both from Old Norse gala (“to sing”).

Noun

gale (plural gales)

  1. (meteorology) A very strong wind, more than a breeze, less than a storm; number 7 through 9 winds on the 12-step Beaufort scale.
  2. An outburst, especially of laughter.
    a gale of laughter
    • 1972, International Association of Seed Crushers, Congress [proceedings]
      The slightest hint of smugness would have had the nation leaning over our shoulders to blow out the birthday candles with a gale of reproach and disapproval.
  3. (archaic) A light breeze.
    • Shakespeare
      A little gale will soon disperse that cloud.
    • Milton
      And winds of gentlest gale Arabian odours fanned / From their soft wings.
  4. (obsolete) A song or story.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Toone to this entry?)
Coordinate terms
Translations

Verb

gale (third-person singular simple present gales, present participle galing, simple past and past participle galed)

  1. (nautical) To sail, or sail fast.

See also

Etymology 3

From Middle English gaile, gawl, gawwyl, gaȝel, gagel, from Old English gagel, gagelle, gagille, gagolle (“gale; sweet gale”), from Proto-Germanic *gagulaz (“gale; sweet-willow”). Cognate with Scots gaul, gall (“bog-myrtle”), Dutch gagel (“wild mytle”), German Gagel (“mytle-bush”), Icelandic gaglviður (“sweet-gale; myrtle”).

Noun

gale

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for gale in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

  1. A shrub, also sweet gale or bog myrtle (Myrica gale) growing on moors and fens.
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Etymology 4

Middle English gavel (“rent", "tribute”), from Old English gafol

Noun

gale (plural gales)

  1. (archaic) A periodic payment, such as is made of a rent or annuity.
    Gale day - the day on which rent or interest is due.
References

Anagrams

Basque

Noun

gale

  1. eagerness

French

Etymology

Variant of galle.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡal/
  • Audio (Paris)(file)

Noun

gale f (plural gales)

  1. scabies; mange

Further reading

Anagrams

Italian

Noun

gale f

  1. plural of gala

Anagrams

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From Old Norse gala

Verb

gale (imperative gal, present tense galer, simple past gol or galte, past participle galt)

  1. to make a sound characteristic of a rooster; to crow

Etymology 2

Adjective

gale

  1. definite singular of gal
  2. plural form of gal

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

gale (present tense gjel, past tense gol, past participle gale, present participle galande, imperative gal)

  1. Alternative form of gala

Alternative forms

Adjective

gale

  1. neuter singular of galen
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