GRAIL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Grail

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/greɪl/ Listen

noun

Grail n. A book of offices in the Roman Catholic Church; a gradual. (Obs.) "Such as antiphonals, missals, grails, processionals, etc."

Grail n. A broad, open dish; a chalice; only used of the Holy Grail. Note: The Holy Grail, according to some legends of the Middle Ages, was the cup used by our Savior in dispensing the wine at the last supper; and according to others, the platter on which the paschal lamb was served at the last Passover observed by our Lord. This cup, according to the legend, if appoached by any but a perfectly pure and holy person, would be borne away and vanish from the sight. The quest of the Holy Grail was to be undertaken only by a knight who was perfectly chaste in thought, word, and act.

Grail n. Small particles of earth; gravel. (Obs.) "Lying down upon the sandy grail."

Grail n. One of the small feathers of a hawk.

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Etymology of 'Grail'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Grail" Quotes from Famous Books

... I believe, that you have seen this vision, and in this spirit have come to help us. Sir Launfal, in searching for the Holy Grail, found it in ministering to the suffering and diseased at his own door. Ye who are in search of God's best gift can find it to-day in lifting up these ten millions of people at your door, broken by slavery, bound by ignorance, yet groping ...

— Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence - The Best Speeches Delivered by the Negro from the days of - Slavery to the Present Time • Various

... if the idea of generally applicable regions is a mare's nest, as was the search for the Holy Grail, what is the object of the study of geographical distribution? It is nothing less than the history of the evolution of life in space and time in the widest sense. The attempt to account for the present distribution of any group of organisms involves ...

— Darwin and Modern Science • A.C. Seward and Others

... of the Holy Grail and its guardians up to the moment of Parsifal's appearance upon the scene, is—we gather it from Gurnemanz's rehearsal of his memories to the youthful esquires,—as follows: At a time when the pure faith ...

— The Wagnerian Romances • Gertrude Hall

... thought. The modern quest of the Grail is not for the crystal cup that held the holy elements, but for the divine life itself, the principle that inspires men to action. The philosopher of our day is not a hermit, theorizing about vague abstractions, but vitally alive to the problems that confront ...

— An American Suffragette • Isaac N. Stevens

... gentle sound, an awful light! Three angels bear the holy Grail; With folded feet, in stoles of white, On ...

— Two Years Ago, Volume I • Charles Kingsley

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