caul

Noun

caul (plural cauls)

1. (historical) A style of close-fitting circular cap worn by women in the sixteenth century and later, often made of linen.
   • Ne spared they to strip her naked all. / Then when they had despoild her tire and call, / Such as she was, their eyes might her behold […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
2. (UK, capitalized, historical, often) An entry to a mill lead taken from a burn or stream (a mill lead (or mill waterway) is generally smaller than a canal but moves a large volume of water).
3. (obsolete except in specific senses) A membrane.
4. The thin membrane which covers the lower intestines; the omentum.
5. The amnion which encloses the foetus before birth, especially that part of it which sometimes shrouds a baby’s head at birth (traditionally considered to be good luck).
   • I was born with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in the newspapers, at the low price of fifteen guineas.1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC
   • Even in the mid seventeenth century a country gentleman might regard his caul as a treasure to be preserved with great care, and bequeathed to his descendants.1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 182
6. The surface of a press that makes contact with panel product, especially a removable plate or sheet.
7. A strip or block of wood used to distribute or direct clamping force.
8. Caul fat.