gale

• IPA^(key): /ɡeɪl/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -eɪl
• Homophone: Gail

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.

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.

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”).

gale (plural gales)

1. (meteorology) A very strong wind, more than a breeze, less than a storm; number 7 through to 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?)

• (meteorology): breeze, hurricane, storm

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

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

• Beaufort scale

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”).

gale

1. A shrub, also called sweet gale or bog myrtle (Myrica gale), that grows on moors and fens.

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

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.

• gale in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• Gael, Lega, egal, geal, lage, leag

gale

1. fish

   Nan gale tek-nak-ey po.

   We've been catching fish.

• Harry Feldman. A Grammar of Awtuw. (Pacific Linguistics: Series B, 94.) (1986)

gale

1. eagerness

Variant of galle.

• IPA^(key): /ɡal/

• Audio (Paris)

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gale f (plural gales)

1. scabies; mange

• “gale” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• égal, Gaël, gela

gale f

1. plural of gala

• gela, lega

From Old Norse gala

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

gale

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

• “gale” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

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

1. Alternative form of gala

• galent

gale

1. neuter singular of galen