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Pale   /peɪl/   Listen
adjective
Pale  adj.  (compar. paler; superl. palest)  
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." "Speechless he stood and pale." "They are not of complexion red or pale."
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." Note: Pale is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, pale-colored, pale-eyed, pale-faced, pale-looking, etc.


noun
Pale  n.  Paleness; pallor. (R.)


Pale  n.  
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."
2.
That which incloses or fences in; a boundary; a limit; a fence; a palisade. "Within one pale or hedge."
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." "Out of the pale of civilization."
4.
Hence: A region within specified bounds, whether or not enclosed or demarcated.
5.
A stripe or band, as on a garment.
6.
(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.
7.
A cheese scoop.
8.
(Shipbuilding) A shore for bracing a timber before it is fastened.
English pale, Irish pale (Hist.), the limits or territory in Eastern Ireland within which alone the English conquerors of Ireland held dominion for a long period after their invasion of the country by Henry II in 1172. See note, below.
beyond the pale outside the limits of what is allowed or proper; also, outside the limits within which one is protected. Note: The English Pale. That part of Ireland in which English law was acknowledged, and within which the dominion of the English was restricted, for some centuries after the conquests of Henry II. John distributed the part of Ireland then subject to England into 12 counties palatine, and this region became subsequently known as the Pale, but the limits varied at different times.


verb
Pale  v. t.  To make pale; to diminish the brightness of. "The glowworm shows the matin to be near, And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire."


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."


Pale  v. i.  (past & past part. paled; pres. part. paling)  To turn pale; to lose color or luster. "Apt to pale at a trodden worm."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Pale" Quotes from Famous Books



... an hour afterward the port side of the gun deck was a mass of solidly packed sailors and marines. My brethren came to me one after another. They quoted scores of texts to make me uncomfortable. I tried to joke, but my lips were parched and my tongue unwilling to act. I was pale and trembling. I knew what I was up against, but determined to see it through. One text only I could remember in this exigency and I quoted it to Lanky Lawrence, the big sailmaker who was the leader of our sect. "Lanky, m' boy," I said ...
— From the Bottom Up - The Life Story of Alexander Irvine • Alexander Irvine
... their autumnal dress. Mr. Stillingfleet remarks, that, about the 25th, the leaves of the plane tree were tawny; of the hazel, yellow; of the oak, yellowish green; of the sycamore, dirty brown; of the maple, pale yellow; of the ash, a fine lemon-colour; of the elm, orange; of the hawthorn, tawny yellow; of the cherry, red; of the horn-beam, bright yellow; of the willow, still hoary. Yet, many of these tints cannot be ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. - Volume 10, No. 271, Saturday, September 1, 1827. • Various
... does not represent her truly,—for this is the great Squaw Sachem, whose rule, with that of her sons, extends from Mystic to Agawam. That red chief, who stalks by her side, is Wappacowet, her second husband, the priest and magician, whose incantations shall hereafter affright the pale-faced settlers with grisly phantoms, dancing and shrieking in the woods, at midnight. But greater would be the affright of the Indian necromancer, if, mirrored in the pool of water at his feet, he could catch a prophetic glimpse of the noonday marvels which the white man is destined ...
— Main Street - (From: "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales") • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... pale purple color Melts around thy sight Like a star, but duller, In the broad daylight. I'd see thee, but I would not be ...
— The Re-echo Club • Carolyn Wells
... this law of fitness is, that your costume shall accord with your person. The young and the old, we all instinctively know, should not dress alike. Neither should the tall and the short, the dark and the light, the pale and the rosy, the grave and the gay, the tranquil and the vivacious. Each variety of form, color, and character has its appropriate style; but our space here is too limited to allow us to do more than drop a hint toward what each requires, to produce the most harmonious and effective ...
— How To Behave: A Pocket Manual Of Republican Etiquette, And Guide To Correct Personal Habits • Samuel R Wells


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