wale

/ˈweɪl/

wale noun: a ridge or low barrier.

Noun (1)

wale (plural wales)

A ridge or low barrier.
A raised rib in knitted goods or fabric, especially corduroy.
- Most twills are continuous—the wale goes from one corner to the one diagonally opposite. Pattern, however, can be achieved by periodically changing the direction of the wales.1979, Kax Wilson, A History of Textiles, Westview Press, →ISBN, pages 66-67
- I have woven a small sample of striped corduroy shown here. […] The stripe draws the eye from side to side while the wales draw the eye up and down.1990, Sharon Alderman, A Handweaver's Notebook, →ISBN, page 50
The texture of a piece of fabric.
- Crepon cloths, with their heavy crape-like wale, are a noteworthy part of the season's importations.1892, “Family Fashions and Fancies”, in Good Housekeeping, volume 14, page 85
A horizontal ridge or ledge on the outside planking of a wooden ship, such as a gunwale or a chainwale.
- The strakes between the several ranges of ports, beginning from under the upper-deck ports of a three-decked ship in the royal navy, are called the channel wale, the middle wale, and the main wale.1863, Andrew Murray, Ship-building in Iron and Wood, page 93
A horizontal timber used for supporting or retaining earth.
- A few feet below the first wale another timber is inserted, likewise secured by struts.1889 February 23, Architecture and Building: A Journal of Investment and Construction, volume 10, page 63
A timber bolted to a row of piles to secure them together and in position.
- Except Plank upon the Head of the Key, and under the upper Wale, and Plank to join the piles.1754, Thomas Gardner, An Historical Account of Dunwich […]
A ridge on the outside of a horse collar.
- The wale is shaped to the size of the horse's neck, and then sewn together, with a flap, known as the 'barge', left free along one side. To this 'barge' the body of the collar is sewn.1976, Ralph Whitlock, Gentle giants: the past, present and future of the heavy horse, page 133
A ridge or streak produced on skin by a cane or whip.
- Shall then that foule infamous Cyneds hide Laugh at the purple wales of others side?1597, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in Virgidemiarum, Sixe Bookes. First Three Bookes, of Tooth-lesse Satyrs. […], London: […] Thomas Creede, for Robert Dexter, →OCLC
- When the rat had looked at the toad's whole body, and not seen any wale of a stick, he said to the toad, "Brother toad, I have looked at thy whole body, and not seen any wale of a stick: thou art right."1854, S. W. Koelle, African Native Literature, Or Proverbs, Tales, Fables and Historical in the Kanuri Or Bornu Language

Verb (1)

wale (third-person singular simple present wales, present participle waling, simple past and past participle waled)

To strike the skin in such a way as to produce a wale or welt.
- Would suffer his lazy rider to bestride his patie: back, with his hands and whip to wale his flesh, and with his heels to dig into his hungry bowels?1832, Owen Felltham, Resolves, Divine, Moral, Political
To beat a person, especially as punishment or out of anger.
- When faced with an adulthood that offered few options, grinding poverty and marriage to a man who drank too much and came home to wale on his own family or...no beatings.2002, Hal Rothman, Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century
To give a surface a texture of wales or welts.

Noun (2)

wale (plural wales)

(Northern England, Scotland) Something selected as being the best, preference; choice; choosing.

Verb (2)

wale (third-person singular simple present wales, present participle waling, simple past and past participle waled)

(Northern England, Scotland) To choose, select.

Proper noun capitalized: Wale

Wale

A surname.

wale meaning in Kannada

wale in Kannada

ಬಾಸುಂಡೆ, ಬಾಸುಳಿ

Examples of wale in a sentence

Wales are awarded a free kick after a minor hack by Järvinen on Llewellyn.
She tears into him, fists waling on him like paddle wheels.
Very coarse work is sided up without an upsett, or is upsetted with a pair instead of a wale.

All 14 example sentences with wale

Forms of wale

Noun
plural	wales
Verb
third-person singular present	wales
present participle	waling
past participle	waled
past	waled
alternative form	wail

Plural of wale: wales

Origin of wale

The noun is from Middle English wāle (“planking, welt”), from Old English walu (“ridge, bank; rib, comb (of helmet); metal ridge on top of helmet; weal, mark of a blow”), from Proto-Germanic *waluz (“stick, root”), from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, wind, roll”). Akin to Low German wāle; Old Norse vala (“knuckle”). The verb is from late Middle English wālen, from the noun.

From Middle English wale, wal, from Old Norse val (“choice”), from Proto-Germanic *walą, *walō (“desire, choice”), from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose, want”). Akin to Old Norse velja (“to choose”), Old High German wala "choice" (German Wahl "choice"), Old English willan (“to want”). More at will.

* English surname of Norman origin, from the Anglo-Norman personal name Wale, of Germanic origin, from the name Walo, a byname meaning "foreigner" (see Wallace). This is also from the related Old English wealh (“Welshman”). * Also as an English surname, from Middle English wale (“goodly, amazing”). * Also as an English surname, from Middle English wale (“riverbank”), from Old English walu (“mark from a blow”). * Also as an English surname, variant of Whale, Wheal, which is from Middle English wel (“happy”) or wele (“pool”). * Also as an English surname, from the noun wheel or a nickname from weevil. * As an Ethiopian surname, from a name derived from Amharic ዋለ (walä, “to spend the day”).

Words formed from wale

Words that rhyme with wale

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about wale

What does wale mean?: Wale means a ridge or low barrier.
What is wale in Kannada?: Wale in Kannada is ಬಾಸುಂಡೆ, ಬಾಸುಳಿ. See Wale meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is wale?: Wale can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce wale?: Wale is pronounced /ˈweɪl/.
What is the plural of wale?: The plural of wale is wales.

Words near wale in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: wale (page history and authors); Wale (page history and authors); wale (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-wale.wav.

Cite this entry: “wale.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wale. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.