Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Pale?

\Pale\, a. [Compar. {Paler}; superl. {Palest}.] [F. p[^a]le, fr. p[^a]lir to turn pale, L. pallere to be o? look pale. Cf. {Appall}, {Fallow}, {pall}, v. i., {Pallid}.] 1. Wanting in color; not ruddy; dusky white; pallid; wan; as, a pale face; a pale red; a pale blue. ``Pale as a forpined ghost.'' --Chaucer. Speechless he stood and pale. --Milton. They are not of complexion red or pale. --T. Randolph. 2. Not bright or brilliant; of a faint luster or hue; dim; as, the pale light of the moon. The night, methinks, is but the daylight sick; It looks a little paler. --Shak. Note: Pale is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, pale-colored, pale-eyed, pale-faced, pale-looking, etc.
\Pale\, n. Paleness; pallor. [R.] --Shak.
\Pale\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Paled}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Paling}.] To turn pale; to lose color or luster. --Whittier. Apt to pale at a trodden worm. --Mrs. Browning.
\Pale\, v. t. To make pale; to diminish the brightness of. The glow?worm shows the matin to be near, And gins to pale his uneffectual fire. --Shak.
\Pale\, n. [F. pal, fr. L. palus: cf. D. paal. See {Pol?} a stake, and lst {Pallet}.] 1. A pointed stake or slat, either driven into the ground, or fastened to a rail at the top and bottom, for fencing or inclosing; a picket. Deer creep through when a pale tumbles down. --Mortimer. 2. That which incloses or fences in; a boundary; a limit; a fence; a palisade. ``Within one pale or hedge.'' --Robynson (More's Utopia). 3. A space or field having bounds or limits; a limited region or place; an inclosure; -- often used figuratively. ``To walk the studious cloister's pale.'' --Milton. ``Out of the pale of civilization.'' --Macaulay. 4. A stripe or band, as on a garment. --Chaucer. 5. (Her.) One of the greater ordinaries, being a broad perpendicular stripe in an escutcheon, equally distant from the two edges, and occupying one third of it. 6. A cheese scoop. --Simmonds. 7. (Shipbuilding) A shore for bracing a timber before it is fastened. {English pale} (Hist.), the limits or territory within which alone the English conquerors of Ireland held dominion for a long period after their invasion of the country in 1172. --Spencer.
\Pale\, v. t. To inclose with pales, or as with pales; to encircle; to encompass; to fence off. [Your isle, which stands] ribbed and paled in With rocks unscalable and roaring waters. --Shak.