hail
Pronunciation: /heɪl/
The English word “hail” has 15 meanings listed here.
noun
- Balls or pieces of ice falling as precipitation, often in connection with a thunderstorm.
- An occurrence of this type of precipitation; a hailstorm.
- A rapid, intense barrage by a large number of projectiles or other objects.
verb
- To have hailstones fall from the sky.
- To send or release hail.
- To pour down in rapid succession.
- To greet; give salutation to; salute.
- To name; to designate; to call.
- To call out loudly in order to gain the attention of.
- To indicate, from a designated stop or otherwise, to the driver of a public transport vehicle that one wishes to board and travel on the vehicle, usually using hand signals such as waving.
- To signal in order to initiate communication with.
- In the game of uppies and downies, to throw (the ball) repeatedly up and down at the goal location, in order to score a point.
- to originate (from), be native (to) or be based (in)
adjective
interjection
- An exclamation of respectful or reverent salutation, or, occasionally, of familiar greeting.
Etymology
From Middle English hayl, haul, from Old English hæġl, hæġel, hagol (“hail”), from Proto-West Germanic *hagl, from Proto-Germanic *haglaz, of uncertain origin. Either from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰlos (“pebble”); or alternatively from *ḱoḱló-, a reduplication of *ḱel- (“cold”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hail (“hail”), West Frisian heil (“hail”), Low German Hagel (“hail”), German Hagel…
Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “hail” there
More English words
About this dictionary
The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.
Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.