pale
1 (pāl)
[Middle English, from Old French pal, from Latin pālus.]
noun
- A stake or pointed stick; a picket.
- A fence enclosing an area.
- The area enclosed by a fence or boundary.
- A region or district lying within an imposed boundary or constituting a separate jurisdiction.
- Pale. The medieval dominions of the English in Ireland. Used with the.
- Heraldry A wide vertical band in the center of an escutcheon.
transitive verb: paled, pal·ing, pales.
- To enclose with pales; fence in.
idioms
- beyond the pale
- Irrevocably unacceptable or unreasonable: behavior that was quite beyond the pale.
pale
2 (pāl)
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pallidus, from pallēre, to be pale.]
adjective: pal·er, pal·est.
- Whitish in complexion; pallid.
- Of a low intensity of color; light.
- Having high lightness and low saturation.
- Of a low intensity of light; dim or faint: “a late afternoon sun coming through the el tracks and falling in pale oblongs on the cracked, empty sidewalks” (Jimmy Breslin)
- Feeble; weak: a pale rendition of the aria.
verb: paled, pal·ing, pales.
transitive verb
- To cause to turn pale.
intransitive verb
- To become pale; blanch: paled with fright.
- To decrease in relative importance.
derivatives
- palély
- adverb
- paléness
- noun
