bale

• IPA^(key): /beɪ̯l/, [ˈbeɪ̯(ə)ɫ], [beə̯ɫ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪl
• Homophone: bail

From Middle English bale (“evil”), from Old English bealu, from Proto-West Germanic *balu, from Proto-Germanic *balwą.

Cognate with Low German bal- (“bad, ill”), Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌻𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (balweins, “torture”), Old High German balo (“destruction”), Old Norse bǫl (“disaster”).

bale (uncountable)

1. Evil, especially considered as an active force for destruction or death.
2. Suffering, woe, torment.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 441:

     That other ſwayne, like aſhes deadly pale,
     Lay in the lap of death, rewing his wretched bale.

   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 2, column 2:

     Rome, and her Rats, are at the point of battell,
     The one ſide muſt haue baile.

   • 1885, “Sir Cawline”, in Francis James Child, editor, The English and Scottish popular ballads‎^[1], volume 2:

     Ffor if you wold comfort me with a kisse,
     Then were I brought ffrom bale to blisse,
     Noe longer here wold I lye.

• baleful

From Middle English bale (“pyre, funeral pyre”), from Old English bǣl (“pyre, funeral pyre”), from Proto-Germanic *bēlą (“pyre”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine; gleam; sparkle”). Cognate with Old Norse bál (which may have been the direct source for the English word).

bale (plural bales)

1. (obsolete) A large fire, a conflagration or bonfire.
2. (archaic) A funeral pyre.
3. (archaic) A beacon-fire.

• balefire

From Middle English bale (“bale”), from Old French bale and Medieval Latin bala, of Germanic origin. Doublet of ball.

bale (plural bales)

1. A rounded bundle or package of goods in a cloth cover, and corded for storage or transportation.
   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 563:

     So having made up my mind, I packed up in bales a quantity of precious stuffs suited for sea-trade and repaired with them from Baghdad-city to Bassorah-town, where I found ship ready for sea, and in her a company of considerable merchants.

2. A bundle of compressed fibers (especially hay, straw, cotton, or wool), compacted for shipping and handling and bound by twine or wire.

   Hyponyms: haybale, strawbale

3. A measurement of hay equal to 10 flakes. Approximately 70-90 lbs (32-41 kg).
4. A measurement of paper equal to 10 reams.
5. A block of compressed cannabis.
6. (collective noun) A group of turtles.

• (measurement of paper): bundle, quire, ream

• Units of paper quantity on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

bale (third-person singular simple present bales, present participle baling, simple past and past participle baled)

1. (transitive) To wrap into a bale.

• bale up

Alternative spelling of bail.

bale (third-person singular simple present bales, present participle baling, simple past and past participle baled)

1. (British, nautical) To remove water from a boat with buckets etc.

• Bale in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• -able, Abel, Able, Beal, Blea, Ebla, Elba, able, albe, bael, beal, blea

Borrowed from Spanish vale.

• IPA^(key): /bale/ [ba.le]
• Rhymes: -ale
• Hyphenation: ba‧le

bale

1. (Southern, colloquial) okay

   Synonym: ados

• “bale”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy], Euskaltzaindia
• “bale”, in Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia [General Basque Dictionary], Euskaltzaindia, 1987–2005

bale

1. Alternative spelling of balé (“fish”)

• Audio:

  (file)

bale

1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of balen

• Abel

• balle

From Gaulish *balu.

• IPA^(key): /bal/

• Audio:

  (file)

bale f (uncountable)

1. chaff (inedible casing of a grain seed)

• “bale”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From French balai.

• IPA^(key): /ba.le/

bale

1. broom

bale

1. to sweep

bale

1. Dated spelling of balé. Romanization of ꦧꦭꦺ

From Proto-Philippine *balay, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *balay, from Proto-Austronesian *balay.

• IPA^(key): /bəˈle/ [bəˈlɛː]
• Hyphenation: ba‧le

balé

1. house

• IPA^(key): /ˈbale/
• Hyphenation: ba‧le

bale (Lontara spelling ᨅᨒᨙ)

1. savory; umami (e.g. cheese)

   Balei kasiaʼna jukukku ― My fish tastes savory.

2. delicious; tasty
3. (of sound or voice) pleasant, satisfactory; nice

   Balei batena aʼbicara ― The way he tells the story is pleasant.

• nyamang
• janna

• A. A. Cense (2024) Makassaars-Nederlands woordenboek‎^[2], Brill, →DOI

From Old English bealu, from Proto-West Germanic *balu, from Proto-Germanic *balwą.

• balu

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaːl(ə)/

bale (plural bales)

1. An evil or wrong act; a bad deed.
2. Maliciousness, iniquity, damage.
3. Devastation and doom; the causing of lifelessness.
4. Woe or torment; hurting, agony.

• baleful
• bale-siðe
• bali

• English: bale (dated)

• “bāle, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-19.

bale

2. decisive, ruinous, vicious
3. tormentuous, painful, hurtful

• “bāle, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-19.

Either from Old English bǣl, Old Norse bál, or a conflation of both; in any case, from Proto-Germanic *bēlą.

• IPA^(key): /baːl/

bale

1. Any large fire; a bonfire or pyre.
2. A fire for inhumation; a funeral pyre.
3. A fire for execution or killing.

• bale-fyre

• English: bale (archaic)
• Scots: bale

• “bāl(e, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-19.

Probably borrowed from Old French bale, balle, from Medieval Latin balla, from Frankish or Old High German balla (“ball”), from Proto-Germanic *balluz.

• bala, ball

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaːl(ə)/

bale (plural bales)

2. A bale (rounded bundle)

• English: bale

• “bāle, n.(3).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-19.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
• “bale”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

From Classical Malay باليق (balik). The noun sense is derived from how papeda is served by turning it around a pair of tongs; a serving is thus called a turn of papeda.

• IPA^(key): /ˈba.le/

bale

1. (intransitive) to turn around
2. (intransitive) to reverse

bale

1. (of papeda, etc.) a portion, serving

   lima bale, bukang lima bokor ― five portions, not five bowls

• Betty Litamahuputty (2012) Ternate Malay: Grammar and Texts

bale (present tense balar, past tense bala, past participle bala, passive infinitive balast, present participle balande, imperative bale/bal)

1. Alternative form of bala

Inherited from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *balay, from Proto-Austronesian *balay.

• IPA^(key): /ba.le/
• Rhymes: -le
• Hyphenation: ba‧le

bale

1. open building
2. pavilion
3. hall

• > Javanese: ꦧꦭꦺ (balé) (inherited)

• "bale" in P.J. Zoetmulder with the collaboration of S.O. Robson, Old Javanese-English Dictionary. 's-Gravenhage: M. Nijhoff, 1982.

bale

1. locative singular of bala (“strength”)

• Homophones: Báli (Brazil), vale (Northern Portugal)
• Hyphenation: ba‧le

bale

1. inflection of balar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative
2. inflection of balir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Inherited from Vulgar Latin root *baba. Compare French bave, Italian bava, Spanish and Portuguese baba. The normal result, *ba, is not used as the singular has been replaced with bală through analogy.

• IPA^(key): /ˈba.le/

bale f pl (plural only)

1. slobber, drool, dribble, saliva

   Synonym: salivă

• bălos

• baale, balle

Uncertain. Perhaps a corruption of Old Frisian *babbelia (“to babble”), whence also Saterland Frisian babbelje.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaːlə/
• Hyphenation: ba‧le

bale

1. (intransitive) to speak

• ätterbale
• baler
• bebale
• froamdbale
• juunbale
• muulebale
• rundbale
• truchbale
• uutbale

• Marron C. Fort (2015) “bale”, in Saterfriesisches Wörterbuch mit einer phonologischen und grammatischen Übersicht, Buske, →ISBN

bale

1. inflection of balar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• bali

Borrowed from Spanish vale, third-person singular present indicative form of valer (“to be worth”), from Old Spanish valer. Compare Chavacano vale.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈbale/ [ˈbaː.lɛ]
• Rhymes: -ale
• Syllabification: ba‧le

bale (Baybayin spelling ᜊᜎᜒ)

1. (chiefly in the negative, colloquial) worth; value
2. promissory note; credit; IOU
3. request of partial advanced payment

bale (Baybayin spelling ᜊᜎᜒ)

1. used to connect previous conversation or events to the following question: so
2. used before stating or enumerating the gist or summary of what is being discussed
3. used as a meaningless filler word to begin a response or when one cannot start to speak

bale (Baybayin spelling ᜊᜎᜒ)

1. (colloquial) valuable; important
2. bought on credit

Borrowed from French ballet.

bale (definite accusative baleyi, plural baleler)

1. ballet