Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Haul?

\Haul\ (h[add]l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Hauled} (h[add]ld); p. pr. & vb. n. {Hauling}.] [OE. halen, halien, F. haler, of German or Scand. origin; akin to AS. geholian to acquire, get, D. halen to fetch, pull, draw, OHG. hol[=o]n, hal[=o]n, G. holen, Dan. hale to haul, Sw. hala, and to L. calare to call, summon, Gr. kalei^n to call. Cf. {Hale}, v. t., {Claim}. {Class}, {Council}, {Ecclesiastic}.] 1. To pull or draw with force; to drag. Some dance, some haul the rope. --Denham. Thither they bent, and hauled their ships to land. --Pope. Romp-loving miss Is hauled about in gallantry robust. --Thomson. 2. To transport by drawing, as with horses or oxen; as, to haul logs to a sawmill. When I was seven or eight years of age, I began hauling all the wood used in the house and shops. --U. S. Grant. {To haul over the coals}. See under {Coal}. {To haul the wind} (Naut.), to turn the head of the ship nearer to the point from which the wind blows.
\Haul\, v. i. 1. (Naut.) To change the direction of a ship by hauling the wind. See under {Haul}, v. t. I . . . hauled up for it, and found it to be an island. --Cook. 2. To pull apart, as oxen sometimes do when yoked. {To haul around} (Naut.), to shift to any point of the compass; -- said of the wind. {To haul off} (Naut.), to sail closer to the wind, in order to get farther away from anything; hence, to withdraw; to draw back.
\Haul\, n. 1. A pulling with force; a violent pull. 2. A single draught of a net; as, to catch a hundred fish at a haul. 3. That which is caught, taken, or gained at once, as by hauling a net. 4. Transportation by hauling; the distance through which anything is hauled, as freight in a railroad car; as, a long haul or short haul. 5. (Rope Making) A bundle of about four hundred threads, to be tarred.