gale
/ɡeɪl/
gale verb: to cry; groan; croak.
Verb (1)
gale (third-person singular simple present gales, present participle galing, simple past galed or gole, past participle galed or gole or galen)
Noun (1)
gale (plural gales)
- A very strong wind, more than a breeze, less than a storm; number 7 through to 9 winds on the 12-step Beaufort scale.
- It's blowing a gale outside.
- Many parts of the boat were damaged in the gale.
- An outburst, especially of laughter.
- a gale of laughter
- 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.1972, International Association of Seed Crushers, Congress [proceedings]
- A light breeze.
- A little gale will soon disperse that cloud.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- And winds of gentlest gale Arabian odours fanned / From their soft wings.1671, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC
Verb (2)
gale (third-person singular simple present gales, present participle galing, simple past and past participle galed)
- To sail, or sail fast.
Noun (2)
gale
- A shrub, also called sweet gale or bog myrtle (Myrica gale), that grows on moors and fens.
Noun (3)
gale (plural gales)
Proper noun capitalized: Gale
Gale
- A surname.
- A unisex given name.
- But my best friend, Gale Hawthorne, and his family will be depending on today’s haul and I can’t let them down.2009, Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire (The Hunger Games), New York, N.Y.: Scholastic Press, →ISBN, page 4
- An unincorporated community in Alexander County, Illinois.
- An unincorporated community in Center Township, Hendricks County, Indiana.
- An unincorporated community in Upshur County, West Virginia.
- A town in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin.
gale meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
gale in Tamil
- பலமான காற்று
gale in Urdu
- جھکڑ, طوفان
gale in Bengali
- বাত্যা, প্রবল বাতাস, মৃদুমন্দ বায়ু
gale in Malayalam
- കോലാഹലം, കൊടുങ്കാറ്റ്, ഉഗ്രവാതം, തിമർപ്പ്
More languagesFewer languages
- gale in Kannada
- ಚಂಡಮಾರುತ caṇḍamāruta
- gale in Punjabi
- ਹਨੇਰੀ hanerī
- gale in Nepali
- टु गेल
- gale in Malay
- badai
- gale in Vietnamese
- bão tố
Examples of gale in a sentence
- Someone also reported that a steamer had just been sunk in a gale.1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xii
- It's blowing a gale and this holiday destination loses all its appeal in an instant in weather like this.2026 January 7, 'Mystery Shopper', “Cornish cream - without the jams?”, in RAIL, number 1052, page 48:
Forms of gale
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | gales |
| present participle | galing |
| past | galed |
| past | gole |
| past participle | galed |
| past participle | gole |
| past participle | galen |
| Noun | |
| plural | gales |
Origin of gale
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.
From Middle English gale (“a wind, breeze”), possibly from Old English galan, possibly an unknown North Germanic origin, related to Icelandic gola (“a breeze”), Danish gal (“furious, mad”), both from Old Norse gala (“to sing”), and thus ultimately related to the above word (etymology 1).
From Middle English gaile, gawl, gawwyl, gaȝel, gagel, from Old English gagel, gagelle, gagille, gagolle (“gale; sweet gale”), from Proto-West Germanic *gagul, from Proto-Germanic *gagulaz (“gale; sweet-willow”). Cognate with Scots gaul, gall (“bog-myrtle”), Dutch gagel (“wild myrtle”), German Gagel (“myrtle-bush”), Icelandic gaglviður (“sweet-gale; myrtle”).
Words formed from gale
Phrases with gale
Words that rhyme with gale
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- veil
- pale
- avail
- wale
- whale
- bail
- hail
- yale
- bale
- snail
- travail
- brail
- exhale
- frail
- jail
- prevail
- swale
- vail
- wail
- derail
- dwale
- entail
- flail
- Gail
- gayle
- impale
- kale
- quail
- regale
- spale
- thumbnail
- white whale
- ale
- curtail
- drail
- inhale
- retail
- shale
- tael
- unveil
- ail
- all hail
- assail
- ayel
- beyond the pale
- braille
- cakes and ale
- camail
Questions about gale
- What does gale mean?
- Gale means to cry; groan; croak.
- What is gale in Tamil?
- Gale in Tamil is பலமான காற்று. See Gale meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use gale in a sentence?
- Someone also reported that a steamer had just been sunk in a gale.
- What part of speech is gale?
- Gale can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce gale?
- Gale is pronounced /ɡeɪl/.
- What is the past tense of gale?
- The past tense of gale is galed.
Words near gale in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gale (page history and authors); Gale (page history and authors); gale (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gale (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gale (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gale (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಚಂಡಮಾರುತ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਹਨੇਰੀ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); gale (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-gale.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gale.wav.
Cite this entry: “gale.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gale. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.