pales

Verb (1)

pale (third-person singular simple present pales, present participle paling, simple past and past participle paled)

1. (intransitive) To turn pale; to lose colour.
   • But a man— / Note men !—they are but women after all, / As women are but Auroras !—there are men / Born tender, apt to pale at a trodden worm, / Who paint for pastime, in their favourite dream, / Spruce auto-vestments flowered with crocus-flames / There are, too, who believe in hell and lie : […]1856, Elizabeth Browning, Aurora Leigh, New York: C. S. Francis & Co., published 1857, page 282

   Synonyms:

   blanch

2. (intransitive) To become insignificant.
   • (Although the conditions are rather different, the generosity of the offer certainly pales by comparison with the "Eurailpass" now available to tourists from North and South America at $125 (£44 13s.), which allows two months' unlimited first class travel throughout the railway systems of thirteen...1959 May, “Talking of Trains: "Rail-rovers" again”, in Trains Illustrated, page 236
3. (transitive) To make pale; to diminish the brightness of.
   • The Glow-worme ſhowes the Matine to be neere, / And gins to pale his vneffectuall Fire : / Adue, adue, Hamlet : remember me.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...

Verb (2)

pale (third-person singular simple present pales, present participle paling, simple past and past participle paled)

1. To enclose with pales, or as if with pales; to encircle or encompass; to fence off.
   • […] your iſle, which ſtands / As Neptunes Parke, ribb’d, and pal’d in / With Oakes vnſkaleable, and roaring Waters, / With Sands that will not bear your Enemies Boates, / But ſuck them vp to th’ Top-maſt.1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...

See all 18 meanings of pale

Noun

palea (plural paleae or pales)

1. The interior chaff or husk of grasses.
2. One of the chaffy scales or bractlets growing on the receptacle of many compound flowers, such as the sunflower.
   • In a single Brazilian species, doubtfully referred to Brickellia, a few pales occur toward the edge of the disk.1917, Benjamin Lincoln Robinson, A Monograph of the Genus Brickellia