wale

1 a raised mark on the skin (as produced by the blow of a whip); characteristic of many allergic reactions [syn: welt, weal, wheal]

2 thick plank forming a ridge along the side of a wooden ship [syn: strake]

English

Etymology

walu. Akin to Low German wale; Old Norse vala.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes with: -eɪl

Noun

1. A ridge or low barrier.
2. A raised rib in knit goods or fabric. (As opposed to course)
3. The texture of a piece of fabric.
4. The outside planking of a wooden ship. (See gunwale)
5. A horizontal timber use for support or retaining earth.
6. A ridge on the outside of a horse collar.
7. A ridge or streak produced on skin by a cane or whip.

Verb

1. To strike the skin in such a way as to produce a wale.
   • 1832: Owen Felltham, Resolves, Divine, Moral, Political

     Would suffer his lazy rider to bestride his patie: back, with his hands and whip to wale his flesh, and with his heels to dig into his hungry bowels?

   • 2002: Hal Rothman, Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century

     When faced with an adulthood that offered few options, grinding poverty and marriage to a man who drank too much and came home to wale on his own family or...no beatings.

See also

• whale
• weal
• wheal

Hawaiian

Noun

1. phlegm
2. saliva

Scots

Etymology

From val.

Pronunciation

• /wel/

Noun

1. choice, selection

Verb

1. to choose

A wale is a broad, thick plank around the outside of a wooden ship.

The garboard is the wale next to the keel; the gunwale is the top such plank and covers the heads of the timbers between the main and fore drifts.

Gunports on armed ships were placed in the Middle Wales.

External links

• Wale width, planking width/evolution of wales

References

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