wale

plural wales

1. A ridge or low barrier.
2. A raised rib in knitted goods or fabric, especially corduroy.

   I have woven a small sample of striped corduroy shown here. […] The stripe draws the eye from side to side while the wales draw the eye up and down.

   1990, Sharon Alderman, A Handweaver's Notebook, →ISBN, page 50

   2 more examples

   Most twills are continuous—the wale goes from one corner to the one diagonally opposite. Pattern, however, can be achieved by periodically changing the direction of the wales.

   1979, Kax Wilson, A History of Textiles, Westview Press, →ISBN, pages 66-67

   The fabric may be further described according to the number of wales per inch: Corduroy known as fine wale, pin-wale, or needle wale has very thin wales (usually twelve or more per inch, i.e., the width of a pin), while wide wale corduroy has thicker wales (usually six or fewer per inch).

   2008, Mary Lisa Gavenas, The Fairchild Encyclopedia of Menswear, page 99

3. The texture of a piece of fabric.

   Crepon cloths, with their heavy crape-like wale, are a noteworthy part of the season's importations.

   1892, “Family Fashions and Fancies”, in Good Housekeeping, volume 14, page 85

4. nauticalA horizontal ridge or ledge on the outside planking of a wooden ship, such as a gunwale or a chainwale.

   The strakes between the several ranges of ports, beginning from under the upper-deck ports of a three-decked ship in the royal navy, are called the channel wale, the middle wale, and the main wale.

   1863, Andrew Murray, Ship-building in Iron and Wood, page 93

5. A horizontal timber used for supporting or retaining earth.

   A few feet below the first wale another timber is inserted, likewise secured by struts.

   1889 February 23, Architecture and Building: A Journal of Investment and Construction, volume 10, page 63

6. A timber bolted to a row of piles to secure them together and in position.

   Except Plank upon the Head of the Key, and under the upper Wale, and Plank to join the piles.

   1754, Thomas Gardner, An Historical Account of Dunwich […]

7. A ridge on the outside of a horse collar.

   The wale is shaped to the size of the horse's neck, and then sewn together, with a flap, known as the 'barge', left free along one side. To this 'barge' the body of the collar is sewn.

   1976, Ralph Whitlock, Gentle giants: the past, present and future of the heavy horse, page 133

8. A ridge or streak produced on skin by a cane or whip.

   Shall then that foule infamous Cyneds hide Laugh at the purple wales of others side?

   1597, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in Virgidemiarum, Sixe Bookes. First Three Bookes, of Tooth-lesse Satyrs. […], London: […] Thomas Creede, for Robert Dexter, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   When the rat had looked at the toad's whole body, and not seen any wale of a stick, he said to the toad, "Brother toad, I have looked at thy whole body, and not seen any wale of a stick: thou art right."

   1854, S. W. Koelle, African Native Literature, Or Proverbs, Tales, Fables and Historical in the Kanuri Or Bornu Language

   I ran to her, and when I reached her I saw across the white skin of her shoulders the distinct wale of a whip.

   2018, Seabury Quinn, The Dark Angel: The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, Volume Three

present singular third person wales · participle present waling · participle past waled · past waled

1. To strike the skin in such a way as to produce a wale or welt.

   Would suffer his lazy rider to bestride his patie: back, with his hands and whip to wale his flesh, and with his heels to dig into his hungry bowels?

   1832, Owen Felltham, Resolves, Divine, Moral, Political

2. To beat a person, especially as punishment or out of anger.

   When faced with an adulthood that offered few options, grinding poverty and marriage to a man who drank too much and came home to wale on his own family or...no beatings.

   2002, Hal Rothman, Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century

3. To give a surface a texture of wales or welts.

plural wales

1. Northern EnglandScotlandSomething selected as being the best, preference; choice; choosing.

present singular third person wales · participle present waling · participle past waled · past waled · alternative wail

1. Northern EnglandScotlandTo choose, select.

1. A surname.