caul

• call [16th-17th c.]
• cawl

From Middle French cale.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kɔːl/
• Rhymes: -ɔːl

caul (plural cauls)

1. (historical) A style of close-fitting circular cap worn by women in the sixteenth century and later, often made of linen. [from 14th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.vii:

     Ne spared they to strip her naked all. / Then when they had despoild her tire and call, / Such as she was, their eyes might her behold […]

2. (historical) Mostly as "Cauls", An Entry to a "Mill lead" taken from a burn or stream, a Mill lead (or mill waterway) is generally smaller than a canal but moving a large volume of water. (In use on British maps of 1800-1950 period - source National Library of Scotland [maps.nls.uk])
3. (anatomy, obsolete except in specific senses) A membrane. [14th-17th c.]
4. The thin membrane which covers the lower intestines; the omentum. [from 14th c.]
5. The amnion which encloses the foetus before birth, especially that part of it which sometimes shrouds a baby’s head at birth (traditionally considered to be good luck). [from 16th c.]
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society (2012), page 182:

     Even in the mid seventeenth century a country gentleman might regard his caul as a treasure to be preserved with great care, and bequeathed to his descendants.

6. The surface of a press that makes contact with panel product, especially a removable plate or sheet.
7. (woodworking) A strip or block of wood used to distribute or direct clamping force.
8. (cooking) Caul fat.

• ACLU, LUCA, Luca, UCLA

From Latin caulis.

caul

1. cabbage