bale

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)

CIDE DICTIONARY

bale, n. [OE. bale, OF. bale, F. balle, LL. bala, fr. OHG. balla, palla, pallo, G. ball, balle, ballen, ball, round pack; cf. D. baal. Cf. Ball a round body.].

 A bundle or package of goods in a cloth cover, and corded for storage or transportation; also, a bundle of straw, hay, etc., put up compactly for transportation.  [1913 Webster]

Bale of dice, a pair of dice. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

bale, v. t. 

 To make up in a bale.  Goldsmith.  [1913 Webster]

bale, v. t. 

 See Bail, v. t., to lade.  [1913 Webster]

bale, n. [AS. bealo, bealu, balu; akin to OS. balu, OHG. balo, Icel. böl, Goth. balweins.].

•  Misery; calamity; misfortune; sorrow.  [1913 Webster]

  "Let now your bliss be turned into bale."  [1913 Webster]
•  Evil; an evil, pernicious influence; something causing great injury.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

bale, n. & v.
--n.
1 a bundle of merchandise or hay etc. tightly wrapped and bound with cords or hoops.
2 the quantity in a bale as a measure, esp. US 500 lb. of cotton.
--v.tr. make up into bales.

Idiom

bale (or bail) out
1 (of an airman) make an emergency parachute descent from an aircraft (cf. BAIL(3)).
2 = BAIL(1) v. 2.

bale, n. archaic or poet. evil, destruction, woe, pain, misery.

bale, var. of BAIL(3).

THESAURUS

bale

aching heart, agony, agony of mind, anguish, bind up, bindle, bitterness, bleeding heart, bolt, bouquet, broken heart, budget, bundle, bundle up, burden, burdening, burthen, cargo, charge, charging, crushing, cumber, cumbrance, deadweight, deck, depression, depth of misery, desolation, despair, do up, drag, encumbrance, extremity, fagot, fardel, fasces, fascine, freight, grief, handicap, heartache, heavy heart, incubus, incumbency, infelicity, lading, load, loading, melancholia, melancholy, millstone, misery, nosegay, oppression, overload, overtaxing, overweighting, pack, package, packet, parcel, posy, pressure, prostration, quiver, roll, roll up, rouleau, saddling, sadness, sheaf, suicidal despair, superincumbency, surcharge, taxing, tie up, truss, truss up, woe, wrap, wrap up, wretchedness

ROGET THESAURUS

bale

Evil

N evil, ill, harm, hurt, mischief, nuisance, machinations of the devil, Pandora's box, ills that flesh is heir to, blow, buffet, stroke, scratch, bruise, wound, gash, mutilation, mortal blow, wound, immedicabile vulnus, damage, loss, disadvantage, prejudice, drawback, disaster, accident, casualty, mishap, bad job, devil to pay, calamity, bale, catastrophe, tragedy, ruin, adversity, mental suffering, demon, (Evil spirit) bane, (cause of evil), badness, (Production of Evil), painfulness, evil doer, outrage, wrong, injury, foul play, bad turn, ill turn, disservice, spoliation, grievance, crying evil, disastrous, bad, awry, out of joint, disadvantageous, amis, wrong, ill, to one's cost, moving accidents by flood and field.

Assemblage

N assemblage, collection, collocation, colligation, compilation, levy, gathering, ingathering, muster, attroupement, team, concourse, conflux, congregation, contesseration, convergence, meeting, levee, reunion, drawing room, at home, conversazione, assembly, congress, convention, conventicle, gemote, conclave, posse, posse comitatus, Noah's ark, miscellany, collectanea, museum, menagerie, museology, crowd, throng, group, flood, rush, deluge, rabble, mob, press, crush, cohue, horde, body, tribe, crew, gang, knot, squad, band, party, swarm, shoal, school, covey, flock, herd, drove, atajo, bunch, drive, force, mulada, remuda, roundup, array, bevy, galaxy, corps, company, troop, troupe, task force, army, regiment, host, populousness, clan, brotherhood, fraternity, sorority, association, volley, shower, storm, cloud, group, cluster, Pleiades, clump, pencil, set, batch, lot, pack, budget, assortment, bunch, parcel, packet, package, bundle, fascine, fasces, bale, seron, seroon, fagot, wisp, truss, tuft, shock, rick, fardel, stack, sheaf, haycock, fascicle, fascicule, fasciculus, gavel, hattock, stook, accumulation, congeries, heap, lump, pile, rouleau, tissue, mass, pyramid, bing, drift, snowball, snowdrift, acervation, cumulation, glomeration, agglomeration, conglobation, conglomeration, conglomerate, coacervate, coacervation, coagmentation, aggregation, concentration, congestion, omnium gaterum, spicilegium, black hole of Calcutta, quantity, collector, gatherer, whip, whipper in, assembled, closely packed, dense, serried, crowded to suffocation, teeming, swarming, populous, as thick as hops, all of a heap, fasciculated cumulative, the plot thickens, acervatim, tibi seris tibi metis.

Contents

N contents, cargo, lading, freight, shipment, load, bale, burden, jag, cartload, shipload, cup of, basket of, of, inside, stuffing, ullage.