Obs. or dial. [Apparently a variant of BOIL sb., which occurs in ME. in the various forms, byle, byil, bule, buyl, buile, bile, biel, bele, beel, the latter apparently the precursor of the 17th-c. spelling beal (if this does not rather represent the ON. equivalent beyla). For the further history, see BOIL.] A pustule or boil.
c. 1400. Wyclif, Lev. xiii. 18 (MS. D). The skynne in the whiche a beel [v.r. bocche] is growun.
1632. Sherwood, A beale, pustule.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), I. s.v., Full of beals, pustulosus.
