Forms: 1 walu, 5–6 Sc. waill, 6–7 waile, 7 wayle, (waale, wael, weale), 6 Sc., 8–9 wail, (6 Sc. vale), 8–9 whale; 5 walle, 6–8 wall; 4– wale. [OE. walu str. fem. (also wk. pl. walan), mark of a lash, weal; also, in charters, used as a topographical term, perh. ridge, bank (of stone or earth). A sense ‘stripe’ appears to be implied by the derivative waled (tr. L. histriatus, app. mistaken for striatus striped).
Cf. LG. wale (wale, wâl, Doornkaat-Koolman), Du. dial. woal, mark of a lash, weal (= sense 2). The other senses below are peculiar to Eng. The identity of the word in its various senses is not quite certain, but the assumption of ‘raised line or strip’ as the primary sense plausibly accounts for all the recorded applications. The relation of the word to OTeut. *walu-z rod, wand (Goth. walu-s, ON. vǫl-r, MSw. val, OFris. walu, NFris. waale) is uncertain.]
† 1. A ridge (of earth or stone). Only OE.
1024. in Kemble, Cod. Dipl., IV. 31. Of ðam beorʓe suþ on ða ealdan wale, swa on corf ʓetes westran cotan of ðam cotan suþ be wale on ðære dice hyrnan. Ibid. (1045), IV. 98. Ofer ðone hæðfeld in stanwale; andlang ðære wale on ðone portweʓ. Ibid., V. 334. On ða eastlangan dicwale.
2. The mark or ridge raised on the flesh by the blow of a rod, lash or the like. = WEAL sb.
The form weal, now more usual, is due to confusion with WHEAL a pustule, swelling, which is often misused for wale.
a. 1100. Aldh. Glosses, in Napier, OE. Gl., 3466. Uibices. i. uerbera, walan. Ibid., 4487. Uibices, wala. Ibid., 4759. Uibice, wale. Ibid., 5365. Asperæ inuectionis, stiþra wala.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, II. lxxiv. (1869), 103. J keepe him that he haue no peyne and that ther be no wales in the hondes.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 113. Saynt Barnard yn Cristys person … sayth þus:… I haue my body for thy loue full of gret walus.
1521. Whitinton, Gramm. (1523), C iij. Vibex, a wale of a rodde.
1530. Palsgr., 286/1. Wall of a strype, enfleure.
1598. Bp. Hall, Sat., IV. i. Shall then that foule infamous Cyneds hide Laugh at the purple wales of others side?
1609. Bible (Douay), Isa. liii. 5. With the waile of his stripe [Vulg. livore ejus] we are healed.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, II. 232. He … strooke, his backe and shoulders so, That bloody wales rose.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 101. Ye shall have him as proud of the Wales on his Back, as a Holy Land Pilgrim is of a Jerusalem Print.
1797. Underwood, Dis. Childhood, I. 106. The … lower limbs … are found covered with large wales, resembling those arising from the sting of nettles.
1867. Pusey, Eleven Addresses, vi. (1908), 65. The traces of the Crown of thorns,… the wales of the scourges.
1868. J. H. Blunt. Ref. Ch. Eng., I. 384. His back was striped with the wales of such frequent scourging.
fig. 1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 558. The wales, marks, scarres and cicatrices of sinne and vice remaine to be seene.
† b. Misused for WHEAL. Obs. rare–1.
1589. [R. Harvey], Pl. Perc., 5. What, what, latine in the mouth of a plaine fellow? Nay I wot neere, but it hath left behind it a wale in my throate like a strange bodylouse in an vnknowne pasture.
1847. Halliwell, Wale, (9) A tumour or large swelling. Kent.
1887. in Kentish Gloss.
3. Textile-manuf. A ridge or raised line (consisting of a thread or threads) in a textile fabric; also collect. with epithet, as indicating the texture of a particular fabric. Cf. WALED a. and waling glass s.v. WALE v.1
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. 24. To lay down the wooll so close, as you can hardly see any wale.
1604. W. Terilo, Friar Bacon’s Prophesie, xxxiv. C 2 b. A Hose with a good waile.
1607. Middleton, Mich. Term, II. iii. D 2 b. By my troth exceeding good cloath, a good wale t ’as.
1662. Evelyn, Chalcogr., 120. It does not at all concern the tissue, Tenor or range of the Threads and Wales (as they call them) which is easily imitated.
1668. T. Rokeby, Lett., 28 Sept., in Mem. (Surtees Soc.), 16. My wife desires to fix you either to a farandine or a mohaire with a small weale [for a gown].
1675. Let. fr. E. I. Co. to Factors Fort St. George, Dec. (MS.). Theis Musters You now Sent Us appeare to be all Taffety Wale.
1684. Patent Office, No. 241. Lines or creases resembling the Wale of Tabby or Mohaire.
1696. J. F., Merch. Ware-ho. laid open, 13. A sort of Callico-Dimetty … Wove with a Wale like a plain Dimetty.
1755. Johnson, Wale, a rising part in the surface of cloth.
1828–32. Webster, Wale, in cloth, a ridge or streak rising above the rest. We say, cloth is wove with a wale.
1886. Beck, Draper’s Dict., Wale, a ridge on the surface of cloth.
fig. 1587. Gascoigne, Herbs, Posies (1907), 329. The feeble thred which Lachesis hath sponne, To drawe my dayes in short abode with thee, Hath wrought a webbe which now (welneare) is donne, The wale is worne.
1611. Beaumont & Fl., Four Plays (1647), 271. Thou art rougher far, and of a courser wale, fuller of pride.
b. transf. A stripe (of color).
1891. T. Hardy, Tess, xlvi. The wide acreage of blank agricultural brownness … was beginning to be striped in wales of darker brown, gradually broadening to ribands.
4. Naut. a. A piece of timber extending horizontally round the top of the sides of a boat; the gunwale.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 12062. Cordes, kyuiles, atached þe wale.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 740. Wyghtly one the wale thay wye vp thaire ankers.
c. 1440. Capgrave, St. Kath., 642. As with-inne the wale Of a stronge ship a man is bore a-loft.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 514/1. Wale, of a schyppe, ratis.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, IX. 134. Her on the waill ner by the I sall stand.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. iv. 76. With sa strang rowthis apon athir waill, The mychty kervell schudderit at euery straik.
1530. Palsgr., 286/1. Wall of a shyppe.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 251. Scho was ten fute thik in the waill.
1709. Lond. Gaz., No. 4510/7. The Hoy Burthen 9 or 10 Tun,… with a clean Tail, a rounding Wale.
1716. B. Church, Hist. Philip’s War (1867), II. 131. That … upon the Wail of each [Whale-]Boat five pieces of strong Leather be fastened on each side.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 405/1. Describe the curve TMS to represent the sheer or extreme height of the side [of a long boat], which in a ship would be called the … upper edge of the wale.
1857. [Colquhoun], Comp. Oarsman’s Guide, 28. The narrow piece of wood running round the sax-board outside, but now generally disused, is called a wale.
b. pl. The horizontal planks or timbers, broader and thicker than the rest, which extend along a ship’s sides, at different heights, from stem to stern; also called bends (see BEND sb.4 6); also sing., each of such timbers.
For chain, channel, main, sheer wales, see CHAIN-WALE, CHANNEL sb.2 2, MAIN a. 11, SHEER sb.2 3.
1295. Acc. Exch. K. R., 5/8 m. 8. Empcio meremii … Et x. d. in ij Wales emptis de Anselmo Carpentario. Ibid. (1336–7), 19/31 m. 5. Et in vj. lignis emptis ad eandem pro Wales et bindes inde faciendis … vj. s.
1497. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 292. Tymbre for bemys walys & other Necessaries in the seid Ship.
1534. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., V. 233. For valis to cover abone the boit, viij d.
1536. in R. G. Marsden, Sel. Pleas Crt. Adm., I. (1894), 58. The sterne of the same cock bote was faste under on of the wales of the said catche.
1627. Capt. J. Smith, Sea Gram., ii. 6. From bend to bend, or waile to waile, which are the outmost timbers on the ship sides.
1664. E. Bushnell, Shipwright, 7. The next Waale parallel to the lower Waale.
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. lii. 479. Bends and Walls [Fr. rambades] of his Carricks.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. iv. 158. They found her wales and outside planks extremely defective.
1824. J. F. Cooper, Pilot, xxiv. II. 303. Such a point-blanker would have torn off a streak of our wales.
1881. Hardy, Trumpet Major, xxvi. Boats built of wood which was greenly growing … three days before it was bent as wales to their sides.
1883. Man. Seamanship for Boys, 11. Q. What are bends? A. The thickest and strongest planks on the outward part of a ship’s side,… They are more properly called wails.
5. Each of the horizontal timbers connecting and bracing the piles of a dam, etc.
1754. T. Gardner, Hist. Acc. Dunwich, 179. Except Plank upon the Head of the Key, and under the upper Wale, and Plank to join the piles.
1837. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 33/1. The wales are to be in two thicknesses, of half-timbers,… bolted to the gauge piles.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 80. These are called guide piles, and to these horizontal timbers are attached, called wales.
6. Basket-making. Each of the horizontal bands round the body of a basket composed of rods intertwined as a finishing-off course.
1907. T. Okey in Jrnl. Soc. Arts, 11 Jan., 190/2. A wale is three or more rods woven one after and over the other to form a binding or string course. Ibid. I was interested to find [in an old Egyptian basket] the same strokes—the fitch, the pair, the border, slath, and wale—I had been using yesterday.
7. A ridge on a horse’s collar: see quot. 1794.
1794. W. Felton, Carriages (1801), II. 139. The Neck Collar is a padded collar made to fit and sit easy round the horse’s neck—it has 2 wales or risings on the outside, called the fore and back wales.
1847. Halliwell.
1895. E. Angl. Gloss.
1908. N. & Q., 10th Ser. X. 146/2. I was told by one of the workmen that the rolls or ridges of a horse-collar between which the hames lie are called respectively the forewale and the afterwale.
8. Comb.: wale-piece, † (a) a piece of timber to serve as the gunwale of a boat; (b) a horizontal timber connecting and binding the piles or posts of a bridge, dam, etc.; † wale-reared a. = WALL-sided; † wale-stock, -tree, ? a piece of timber to serve as a gunwale; wale-streak, the gunwale of a boat.
1350. Acc. Exch. K. R., 25/32 (P.R.O.). En xxxvij piec’ de mesrime achat’ pour *wale piecen, wale stockez et fotwalen.
1739. Labelye, Piers Westm. Bridge, 20. The Plates, Whale-Pieces, Ties and Braces that had been contrived to keep them steady.
1839. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., II. 432/1. Allowing a space of not less than 12 inches wide between the wale pieces, for the piles to fill up the bays between the wale pieces.
c. 1635. Capt. N. Boteler, Dial. Sea Services (1685), *Wale reared.
1644. Manwayring, Sea-mans Dict., 113. Wale-reared, that is, when a ship is built right up, after she comes to her bearing.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), Wale-reared, an obsolete phrase, implying wall sided.
1350. *Wale stockez [see wale piece above].
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, II. VIII. iii. 474/2. Here he [the coxswain] must sit cross-legged … with a hand on each gunwale or ‘wale-streak.
1485. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 72. *Wale trees … ij, Hausers … ij.
1488. Acc. & Inv., 72 (P.R.O.). Waletrees.
