*pale*

{ } n. [ See Spale & Spall. ] (Shipbuilding) One of the temporary wooden braces, placed horizontally across a frame to hold it in position until the deck beams are in; a cross-pawl. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Pref. em- (L. in) + pale: cf. OF. empalir. ] To make pale. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

No bloodless malady empales their face. G. Fletcher. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Empaled p. pr. & vb. n. Empaling. ] [ OF. empaler to palisade, pierce, F. empaler to punish by empalement; pref. em- (L. in) + OF. & F. pal a pale, stake. See Pale a stake, and cf. Impale. ] [ Written also impale. ] 1. To fence or fortify with stakes; to surround with a line of stakes for defense; to impale. [ 1913 Webster ]

All that dwell near enemies empale villages, to save themselves from surprise. Sir W. Raleigh. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To inclose; to surround. See Impale. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To put to death by thrusting a sharpened stake through the body. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Her.) Same as Impale. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. empalement, fr. empaler. See Empale. ] [ Written also impalement. ] 1. A fencing, inclosing, or fortifying with stakes. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A putting to death by thrusting a sharpened stake through the body. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Her.) Same as Impalement. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Impaled p. pr. & vb. n. Impaling. ] [ See 2d Empale. ] 1. To pierce with a pale; to put to death by fixing on a sharp stake. See Empale. [ 1913 Webster ]

Then with what life remains, impaled, and left
To writhe at leisure round the bloody stake. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To inclose, as with pales or stakes; to surround. [ 1913 Webster ]

Impale him with your weapons round about. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Her.) To join, as two coats of arms on one shield, palewise; hence, to join in honorable mention. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ordered the admission of St. Patrick to the same to be matched and impaled with the blessed Virgin in the honor thereof. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of impaling, or the state of being impaled. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An inclosing by stakes or pales, or the space so inclosed. H. Brooke. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which hedges in; inclosure. [ R. ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Her.) The division of a shield palewise, or by a vertical line, esp. for the purpose of putting side by side the arms of husband and wife. See Impale, 3. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To place pales between or among; to separate by pales. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To interweave or interlace. [ R. ] Brende. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pale, like a sick girl. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. a. Of or pertaining to Nepal, a kingdom North of India; as, Nepalese troops massed at the border. [ Formerly written Nepaulese. ]
Syn. -- Nepali. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

prop. n. sing. & pl. A native or natives of Nepal, or an inhabitant of Nepal. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Opalesced p. pr. & vb. n. Opalescing ] To give forth a play of colors, like the opal. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Min.) A reflection of a milky or pearly light from the interior of a mineral, as in the moonstone; the state or quality of being opalescent. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Reflecting a milky or pearly light from the interior; having an opaline play of colors. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Paleness; pallor. [ R. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Compar. Paler superl. Palest. ] [ F. pâle, fr. pâlir to turn pale, L. pallere to be or look pale. Cf. Appall, Fallow, pall, v. i., Pallid. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Wanting in color; not ruddy; dusky white; pallid; wan; as, a pale face; a pale red; a pale blue. “Pale as a forpined ghost.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Speechless he stood and pale. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

They are not of complexion red or pale. T. Randolph. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Not bright or brilliant; of a faint luster or hue; dim; as, the pale light of the moon. [ 1913 Webster ]

The night, methinks, is but the daylight sick;
It looks a little paler. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Pale is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, pale-colored, pale-eyed, pale-faced, pale-looking, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Paled p. pr. & vb. n. Paling. ] To turn pale; to lose color or luster. Whittier. [ 1913 Webster ]

Apt to pale at a trodden worm. Mrs. Browning. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To make pale; to diminish the brightness of. [ 1913 Webster ]

The glowworm shows the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. pal, fr. L. palus: cf. D. paal. See Pole a stake, and 1st Pallet. ] 1. A pointed stake or slat, either driven into the ground, or fastened to a rail at the top and bottom, for fencing or inclosing; a picket. [ 1913 Webster ]

Deer creep through when a pale tumbles down. Mortimer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which incloses or fences in; a boundary; a limit; a fence; a palisade. “Within one pale or hedge.” Robynson (More's Utopia). [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A space or field having bounds or limits; a limited region or place; an inclosure; -- often used figuratively. “To walk the studious cloister's pale.” Milton. “Out of the pale of civilization.” Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Hence: A region within specified bounds, whether or not enclosed or demarcated. [ PJC ]

5. A stripe or band, as on a garment. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Her.) One of the greater ordinaries, being a broad perpendicular stripe in an escutcheon, equally distant from the two edges, and occupying one third of it. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. A cheese scoop. Simmonds. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. (Shipbuilding) A shore for bracing a timber before it is fastened. [ 1913 Webster ]

English pale,
Irish pale (Hist.), the limits or territory in Eastern Ireland within which alone the English conquerors of Ireland held dominion for a long period after their invasion of the country by Henry II in 1172. See note, below. --
beyond the pale outside the limits of what is allowed or proper; also, outside the limits within which one is protected. Spencer. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

The English Pale. That part of Ireland in which English law was acknowledged, and within which the dominion of the English was restricted, for some centuries after the conquests of Henry II. John distributed the part of Ireland then subject to England into 12 counties palatine, and this region became subsequently known as the Pale, but the limits varied at different times. [ Century Dict., 1906 ]

v. t. To inclose with pales, or as with pales; to encircle; to encompass; to fence off. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Your isle, which stands ] ribbed and paled in
With rocks unscalable and roaring waters. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n.; pl. Paleæ [ L., chaff. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. (Bot.) (a) The interior chaff or husk of grasses. (b) One of the chaffy scales or bractlets growing on the receptacle of many compound flowers, as the Coreopsis, the sunflower, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) A pendulous process of the skin on the throat of a bird, as in the turkey; a dewlap. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. palea chaff. ] (Bot.) Chaffy; resembling or consisting of paleæ, or chaff; furnished with chaff; as, a paleaceous receptacle. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Paleo- + arctic. ] Belonging to a region of the earth's surface which includes all Europe to the Azores, Iceland, and all temperate Asia. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ See 5th Pale. ] 1. Striped. [ Obs. ] “[ Buskins ] . . . paled part per part.” Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Inclosed with a paling. “A paled green.” Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL. See Paleo-, and Echinoidea. ] (Zool.) An extinct order of sea urchins found in the Paleozoic rocks. They had more than twenty vertical rows of plates. Called also Palaeechini. [ Written also Palaeechinoidea. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The more primitive parts of the brain phylogenetically; it includes most structures other than the cerebral cortex.
Syn. -- paleoencephalon, palaeoencephalon. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A white person; -- an appellation supposed to have been applied to the whites by the American Indians. J. F. Cooper. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL. See Paleo-, and Ichthyology. ] (Zool.) A comprehensive division of fishes which includes the elasmobranchs and ganoids. [ Written also Palæichthyes. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. [ From Pale, a. ] In a pale manner; dimly; wanly; not freshly or ruddily. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A superior kind of dimity made in India, -- used for bed coverings. [ Written also palampore, palampoor, etc. ] De Colange. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality or condition of being pale; want of freshness or ruddiness; a sickly whiteness; lack of color or luster; wanness. [ 1913 Webster ]

The blood the virgin's cheek forsook;
A livid paleness spreads o'er all her look. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. (Ethnol.) A collective name for the Indians of Nicaragua and Honduras. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Gr. palaio`s, adj. ] A combining form meaning old, ancient; as, palearctic, paleontology, paleothere, paleography. [ Written also palæo-. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One versed in paleobotany. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Paleo- + botany. ] That branch of paleontology which treats of fossil plants. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL., fr. Gr. palaio`s ancient + kari`s, -i`dos, a kind of crustacean. ] (Zool.) Same as Merostomata. [ Written also Palæocarida. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL. See Paleo-, and Crinoidea. ] (Zool.) A suborder of Crinoidea found chiefly in the Paleozoic rocks. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Paleo- + Gr. kry`stallos ice. ] Of, pertaining to, or derived from, a former glacial formation. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Paleo- + Gr. gai^a the earth. ] (Zool.) Of or pertaining to the Eastern hemisphere. [ Written also palæogæan. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The study of the geography of ancient times or ancient epochs.
Syn. -- palaeogeography. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. The study of geologic features once at the surface of the earth but now buried beneath rocks.
Syn. -- palaeogeology. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. An ancient manuscript. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One skilled in paleography; a paleographist. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ Cf. F. paléographique. ] Of or pertaining to paleography. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One versed in paleography; a paleographer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Paleo- + -graphy: cf. F. paléographie. ] 1. An ancient manner of writing; ancient writings, collectively; as, Punic paleography. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The study of ancient inscriptions and modes of writing; the art or science of deciphering ancient writings, and determining their origin, period, etc., from external characters; diplomatics. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n.; pl. Paleolæ [ NL., dim. of L. palea. ] (Bot.) A diminutive or secondary palea; a lodicule. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Paleo- + -lith. ] (Geol.) A relic of the Paleolithic era. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Geol.) Of or pertaining to an era marked by early stone implements. The Paleolithic era (as proposed by Lubbock) includes the earlier half of the “Stone Age;” the remains belonging to it are for the most part of extinct animals, with relics of human beings. [ 1913 Webster ]