shail
/ʃeɪɫ/
shail verb: to walk or move unsteadily or haphazardly; stumbling or shuffling.
Verb
shail (third-person singular simple present shails, present participle shailing, simple past and past participle shailed)
- To walk or move unsteadily or haphazardly; stumbling or shuffling.
- The mysterious woman meandered up the street, shailing and leaning precariously at times.
- ...some were amiable for favour, perfect of bodie, yet ill legged; other, which were well legde, shaled with their feete, or were splafooted...1876 [1593], anonymous author, Tell-Trothes New-Yeares Gift and The Passionate Morrice, &c., London: The New Shakspere Society, The Passionate Morris, page 82
Forms of shail
| third-person singular present | shails |
|---|---|
| present participle | shailing |
| past participle | shailed |
| past | shailed |
| alternative form | shale |
| alternative form (obsolete) | shayle |
| alternative form (obsolete) | shoyle |
Origin of shail
Possibly from Old English sceolh (“askew, awry, oblique, slanted”).
Questions about shail
- What does shail mean?
- Shail means to walk or move unsteadily or haphazardly; stumbling or shuffling.
- What part of speech is shail?
- Shail is a verb.
- How do you pronounce shail?
- Shail is pronounced /ʃeɪɫ/.
- What is the past tense of shail?
- The past tense of shail is shailed.
Words near shail in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shail (page history and authors). 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-shail.wav.
Cite this entry: “shail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.