Adjacent Words

Pale definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PALE, a. [L. palleo,pallidus.]
1. White or whitish; wan; deficient in color; not ruddy or fresh of color; as a pale face or skin; pale cheeks. We say also, a pale red, a pale blue,that is, a whitish red or blue. Pale is not precisely synonymous with white, as it usually denotes what we call wan, a darkish dun white.
2. Not bright; not shining; of a faint luster; dim; as the pale light of the moon.
The night, methinks, is but the daylight sick;
It looks a little paler.
PALE, v.t. To make pale.
PALE, n. [L. palus; coinciding with Eng. pole, as well as pale. It has the elements of L. pala,a spade or shovel.]
1. A narrow board pointed or sharpened at one end, used in fencing or inclosing. This is with us more generally called a picket.
2. A pointed stake; hence to empale,which see.
3. An inclosure; properly,that which incloses, like fence, limit; hence,the space inclosed. He was born within the pale of the church; within the pale of christianity.
4. District; limited territory.
5. In heraldry, an ordinary, consisting of two perpendicular lines drawn from the top to the base of the escutcheon, and containing the third middle part of the field.
PALE, v.t. To inclose with pales or stakes.
1. To inclose; to encompass.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: very light colored; highly diluted with white; "pale seagreen"; "pale blue eyes"
2: (of light) lacking in intensity or brightness; dim or feeble; "the pale light of a half moon"; "a pale sun"; "the late afternoon light coming through the el tracks fell in pale oblongs on the street"; "a pallid sky"; "the pale (or wan) stars"; "the wan light of dawn" [syn: pale, pallid, wan, sick]
3: lacking in vitality or interest or effectiveness; "a pale rendition of the aria"; "pale prose with the faint sweetness of lavender"; "a pallid performance" [syn: pale, pallid]
4: abnormally deficient in color as suggesting physical or emotional distress; "the pallid face of the invalid"; "her wan face suddenly flushed" [syn: pale, pallid, wan]
5: not full or rich; "high, pale, pure and lovely song" n
1: a wooden strip forming part of a fence [syn: picket, pale] v
1: turn pale, as if in fear [syn: pale, blanch, blench]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French pel, pal stake, from Latin palus — more at pole Date: 12th century 1. archaic palisade, paling 2. a. one of the stakes of a palisade b. picket 3. a. a space or field having bounds ; enclosure b. a territory or district within certain bounds or under a particular jurisdiction 4. an area or the limits within which one is privileged or protected (as from censure) <conduct that was beyond the pale> 5. a perpendicular stripe on a heraldic shield II. transitive verb (paled; paling) Date: 14th century to enclose with pales ; fence III. adjective (paler; palest) Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin pallidus, from pall?re to be pale — more at fallow Date: 14th century 1. deficient in color or intensity of color ; pallid <a pale complexion> 2. not bright or brilliant ; dim <a pale sun shining through the fog> 3. feeble, faint <a pale imitation> 4. deficient in chroma <a pale pink> • palely adverb • paleness noun • palish adjective IV. verb (paled; paling) Date: 14th century intransitive verb to become pale transitive verb to make pale

Britannica Concise

District separated from the surrounding country by defined boundaries or set apart by a distinctive administrative and legal system. In imperial Russia from the late 18th cent., the Pale of Settlement was the area in which Jews were permitted to live. By the 19th cent. it included all of Russian Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Crimea, Bessarabia, and most of Ukraine. It ceased to exist during World War I, when Jews in great numbers fled to the interior, and it was abolished in 1917. The English maintained a pale in Ireland until the entire island was subjugated under Elizabeth I in the 16th cent.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. adj. & v. --adj. 1 (of a person or complexion) of a whitish or ashen appearance. 2 a (of a colour) faint; not dark or deep. b faintly coloured. 3 of faint lustre; dim. --v. 1 intr. & tr. grow or make pale. 2 intr. (often foll. by before, beside) become feeble in comparison (with). Derivatives: palely adv. paleness n. palish adj. Etymology: ME f. OF pale, palir f. L pallidus f. pallere be pale 2. n. 1 a pointed piece of wood for fencing etc.; a stake. 2 a boundary or enclosed area. 3 Heraldry a vertical stripe in the middle of a shield. Phrases and idioms: beyond the pale outside the bounds of acceptable behaviour. in pale Heraldry arranged vertically. Etymology: ME f. OF pal f. L palus stake

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pale 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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pale 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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pale 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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pale 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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pale Pale, n. Paleness; pallor. [R.] --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(paler, palest, pales, paling, paled) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If something is pale, it is very light in colour or almost white. Migrating birds filled the pale sky... As we age, our skin becomes paler. ? dark ADJ • Pale is also a combining form. ...a pale blue sailor dress... COMB in COLOUR 2. If someone looks pale, their face looks a lighter colour than usual, usually because they are ill, frightened, or shocked. She looked pale and tired... ADJ: usu v-link ADJ • paleness ...his paleness when he realized that he was bleeding. N-UNCOUNT: oft with poss 3. If one thing pales in comparison with another, it is made to seem much less important, serious, or good by it. When someone you love has a life-threatening illness, everything else pales in comparison. ...a soap opera against which other soaps pale into insignificance. VERB: V, V prep 4. If you think that someone's actions or behaviour are not acceptable, you can say that they are beyond the pale. This sort of thing really is quite beyond the pale. = unacceptable PHRASE: PHR after v, oft PHR of n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. White, pallid, wan, ashy, whitish, colorless. 2. Dim, obscure. II. n. 1. Picket, stake. 2. Enclosure, circuit. 3. District, region, territory. 4. Confine, limit, boundary, fence.

Moby Thesaurus

abate, abnormal, achievement, achromatic, achromatize, achromic, alabaster, alabastrine, albescent, alerion, ambit, anathema, anemic, animal charge, annulet, arena, argent, arid, armorial bearings, armory, arms, ashen, ashy, azure, bailiwick, bandeau, bar, bar sinister, barren, baton, bearings, beat, bend, bend sinister, billet, bizarre, blah, blanch, blanched, blank, blazon, blazonry, bleach, bleach out, blear, bleared, bleary, bled white, blench, block, bloodless, blue, blur, blurred, blurry, blush, border, borderland, borders, bordure, boundaries, boundary, bounds, bourns, broad arrow, bulkhead in, cachectic, cadaverous, cadency mark, canton, change color, chaplet, characterless, charge, chevron, chief, chloranemic, cincture, circle, circuit, circumference, circumscription, clos, close, coat of arms, cockatrice, cold, color, colorless, compass, confine, confines, confused, container, coop, coordinates, coronet, corpselike, court, courtyard, cream, creamy, crescent, crest, crimson, croft, cross, cross moline, crown, curtilage, dark, darken, dead, deadly, deadly pale, deathlike, deathly, deathly pale, debilitated, decolor, decolorize, decrease, defocus, delicate, delimited field, demesne, department, device, difference, differencing, dim, diminish, dimmed, dingy, discolor, discolored, dismal, domain, dominion, doughy, draggy, drain, drain of color, drained, drearisome, dreary, dry, dryasdust, dull, dun-white, dusty, eagle, edges, eerie, effete, eggshell, elephantine, empty, enclave, enclosure, enervated, enfeebled, ermine, ermines, erminites, erminois, escutcheon, etiolate, etiolated, exhausted, exsanguinated, exsanguine, exsanguineous, fade, fade away, fade out, faded, failing, faint, fair, falcon, fallow, feeble, fence, fess, fess point, field, file, film, filmy, flanch, flat, fleur-de-lis, flimsy, flush, fog, foggy, fold, forbidden, forty, frail, freeze, fret, fringes, fume, funk, fur, fusil, fuzzy, garland, ghastly, ghostlike, ghostly, glaucescent, glaucous, gloss, glow, gray, gray-white, griffin, grisly, ground, grow pale, gruesome, gules, gyron, haggard, half-baked, half-seen, half-visible, hatchment, hazy, healthless, heavy, hedge, helmet, hem, hemisphere, heraldic device, ho-hum, hollow, honor point, hueless, hypochromic, ill-defined, impalement, impaling, improper, in poor health, inadequate, inadmissible, inane, inconspicuous, indecent, indefinite, indistinct, indistinguishable, ineffective, ineffectual, inescutcheon, inexcitable, infirm, insignificant, insipid, insubstantial, interdicted, invalid, iridescent, irregular, ivory, ivory-white, jejune, judicial circuit, jurisdiction, kraal, label, lackluster, lame, languishing, leaden, leg, lessen, lifeless, light, limitations, limits, lint-white, lion, list, livid, look black, lose color, lose courage, lose resolution, lot, low-profile, low-spirited, lozenge, lurid, lusterless, macabre, mantle, mantling, march, marches, marshaling, martlet, mascle, mat, mealy, mellow, merely glimpsed, metal, metes, metes and bounds, mist, misty, moribund, mortuary, mother-of-pearl, motto, muddy, mullet, nacreous, neutral, nombril point, obscure, octofoil, off-white, opalescent, or, orb, orbit, ordinary, orle, out of focus, outlines, outre, outskirts, pale as death, pale-faced, paling, palisade, pallid, paltry, paly, parameters, parcel of land, park, pastel, pasty, patch, patinaed, peaked, peaky, pean, pearl, pearly, pearly-white, peculiar, pedestrian, peg, pen, perimeter, periphery, peroxide, pheon, picket, pile, plat, plodding, plot, plot of ground, pointless, poky, ponderous, poor, post, precinct, prohibited, province, puny, purpure, quad, quadrangle, quarter, quartering, quiet, rail, real estate, realm, redden, reduced, reduced in health, restriction, rose, round, run-down, sable, sad, sallow, saltire, scutcheon, section, semigloss, semivisible, shadowy, shank, shield, sick, sickly, simple, skirts, slow, sober, soft, soft-colored, soft-hued, soften, softened, solemn, somber, sphere, spile, spiritless, spread eagle, square, stake, sterile, stiff, stodgy, strange, stuffy, subdued, subordinary, subtle, superficial, sweet, take alarm, take fright, tallow-faced, tame, tarnish, tasteless, tedious, tender, tenne, theater, tincture, toft, tone down, toneless, torse, tract, tressure, turn color, turn pale, turn red, turn white, unacceptable, uncanny, uncertain, unclear, uncolored, undefined, unearthly, unhealthy, unicorn, uninspired, unlively, unplain, unrecognizable, unseemly, unsound, unsubstantial, unsuitable, unusual, upright, vague, vair, valetudinarian, valetudinary, vapid, verboten, verges, vert, walk, wall, wan, wash out, washed out, washed-out, waterish, watery, waxen, weak, weakened, weakly, weird, whey-faced, white, whiten, whitened, whitish, whity, wishy-washy, with low resistance, wooden, wreath, yale, yard