bale

• IPA^(key): /beɪ̯l/, [ˈbeɪ̯(ə)ɫ], [beə̯ɫ]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪl
• Homophone: bail

From Middle English bale (“evil”), Old English bealo, from Proto-Germanic *balwą. Cognate with Low German bal- (“bad, ill”), Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌻𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (balweins, “torture”), Old High German balo (“destruction”), Old Norse bǫl (“disaster”).

bale (uncountable)

1. evil, especially considered as an active force for destruction or death.
2. suffering, woe, torment.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:

     That other swayne, like ashes deadly pale, / Lay in the lap of death, rewing his wretched bale.

   • c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus (Act I, Scene 1):

     "Rome and her rats are at the point of battle; / The one side must have bale."

• baleful

From Middle English bale (“pyre, funeral pyre”), from Old English bǣl (“pyre, funeral pyre”), from Proto-Germanic *bēlą (“pyre”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine; gleam; sparkle”). Cognate with Old Norse bál (which may have been the direct source for the English word).

bale (plural bales)

1. (obsolete) A large fire, a conflagration or bonfire.
2. (archaic) A funeral pyre.
3. (archaic) A beacon-fire.

• balefire

From Middle English bale (“bale”); further derivation uncertain: perhaps from Old French bale, balle, from Medieval Latin balla (“ball, rounded package”), from Germanic; or perhaps from the Middle Dutch ancestor of Dutch baal, itself borrowed from Middle French.

Round straw bales in Germany

bale (plural bales)

1. A rounded bundle or package of goods in a cloth cover, and corded for storage or transportation.
   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 563:

     So having made up my mind, I packed up in bales a quantity of precious stuffs suited for sea-trade and repaired with them from Baghdad-city to Bassorah-town, where I found ship ready for sea, and in her a company of considerable merchants.

2. A bundle of compressed wool or hay, compacted for shipping and handling.
3. A measurement of hay equal to 10 flakes. Approximately 70-90 lbs (32-41 kg).
4. A measurement of paper equal to 10 reams.

• (measurement of paper): bundle, quire, ream

• bale of dice

• Units of paper quantity on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

bale (third-person singular simple present bales, present participle baling, simple past and past participle baled)

1. (transitive) To wrap into a bale.

Alternative spelling of bail

bale (third-person singular simple present bales, present participle baling, simple past and past participle baled)

1. (Britain, nautical) To remove water from a boat with buckets etc.

• Bale in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• -able, Abel, Able, Beal, Blea, Ebla, Elba, able, albe, bael, beal, blea

bale

1. fish

• Audio

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bale

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of balen

• Abel

• balle

From Gaulish *balu.

• IPA^(key): /bal/

bale f (uncountable)

1. chaff (inedible casing of a grain seed)

From Proto-Philippine *balay, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *balay, from Proto-Austronesian *balay.

balé

1. house

From Old English bealo, from Proto-Germanic *balwą.

• balu

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaːl(ə)/

bale (plural bales)

1. An evil or wrong act; a bad deed.
2. Maliciousness, iniquity, damage.
3. Devastation and doom; the causing of lifelessness.
4. Woe or torment; hurting, agony.

• baleful
• bale-siðe

• English: bale (dated)

• “bāle (n.(1))” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-19.

bale

1. decisive, ruinous, vicious
2. tormentuous, painful, hurtful

• “bāle (adj.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-19.

Either from Old English bǣl, Old Norse bál, or a conflation of both; in any case, from Proto-Germanic *bēlą.

• IPA^(key): /baːl/

bale

1. Any large fire; a bonfire or pyre.
2. A fire for inhumation; a funeral pyre.
3. A fire for execution or killing.

• bale-fyre

• English: bale (archaic)
• Scots: bale

• “bāl(e (n.(2))” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-19.

Probably from Old French bale, balle, from Medieval Latin balla.

• bala, ball

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaːl(ə)/

bale (plural bales)

1. A bale (rounded bundle)

• English: bale

• “bāle (n.(3))” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-19.

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈba.li/
  • Homophone: Bali

bale

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of balar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of balar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of balar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of balar
5. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present indicative of balir
6. second-person singular (tu, sometimes used with você) affirmative imperative of balir

From Vulgar Latin root *baba. Compare French bave, Italian bava, Spanish and Portuguese baba. The normal result, *ba, is not used as the singular has been replaced with bală through analogy.

bale f pl (plural only)

1. slobber, drool, dribble, saliva

• salivă

• bălos

bale

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of balar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of balar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of balar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of balar.

Borrowed from French ballet.

bale (definite accusative baleyi, plural baleler)

1. ballet