heal

• IPA^(key): /hiːl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːl
• Homophones: heel, he'll, hill (in some accents)

From Middle English helen, from Old English hǣlan (“to heal, cure, save, greet, salute”), from Proto-Germanic *hailijaną (“to heal, make whole, save”), from Proto-Indo-European *koyl- (“safe, unharmed”). Cognate with Scots hale, hail (“to heal”), Saterland Frisian heila, heilen (“to heal”), West Frisian hielje, Dutch helen (“to heal”), German heilen (“to heal”), Danish hele, Swedish hela (“to heal”). More at whole.

heal (third-person singular simple present heals, present participle healing, simple past and past participle healed)

1. (transitive) To make better from a disease, wound, etc.; to revive or cure.

   This bandage will heal your cut.

   • Bible, Matthew viii. 8

     Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

2. (intransitive) To become better or healthy again.

   Bandages allow cuts to heal.

3. To reconcile, as a breach or difference; to make whole; to free from guilt.

   to heal dissensions

• (make better): cure, make whole
• (become better): get better, recover

heal (countable and uncountable, plural heals)

1. (role-playing games, countable) A spell or ability that restores hit points or removes a status ailment.
   • 2004, Computer Gaming World (volumes 234-237, page 81)

     Also, various interesting spells have been added—for instance, with the Orb spell, you can circle a character, firing offensive bolts or casting heals, and free up a mage-type to cast other spells or even melee.

   • 2009, Paul Emmerich, Beginning Lua with World of Warcraft Add-ons (page 351)

     The following macro checks whether our current target is friendly and casts a heal on it if so; otherwise it casts the heal on the target's target […]

   • 2012, Constance Steinkuehler, ‎Kurt Squire, ‎Sasha Barab, Games, Learning, and Society

     Synner, a priest walking by, sees her struggling and casts a heal on her.

2. (obsolete, uncountable) health

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

From Middle English helen, hilen, from Old English helan (“to conceal, cover, hide”), from Proto-Germanic *helaną (“to hide, stash”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to hide, conceal”). Cognate with helmet, Scots heal (“to cover, hide, conceal, keep secret”), Dutch helen (“to conceal”), German hehlen (“to conceal”), Swedish häla (“hide”) and hälare (“fence”) (peddler of stolen goods), Latin cēlō (“conceal”). Related to hole, hull.

• hele, heel
• heil (Scotland)

heal (third-person singular simple present heals, present participle healing, simple past hole or healed, past participle holen or healed)

1. (transitive, obsolete or dialectal) To hide; conceal; keep secret.
2. (transitive) To cover, as for protection.

• Hale, Hela, Leah, hale

heal

1. adessive singular of hea

heal (uncountable)

1. health

From Old Frisian half, from Proto-Germanic *halbaz.

• IPA^(key): /hɪə̯l/

heal

1. half

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

• “heal”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011