Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A fermented alcoholic beverage containing malt and hops, similar to but heavier than beer.
- n. A serving of this beverage.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A light-colored beer, made from malt which is dried at a low heat. See beer. Pale ale is made from the palest or lightest-colored malt, the fermenting temperature being kept below 72° to prevent the formation of acetic acid.
- n. An ale-drinking; a festival or merrymaking at which ale was the beverage drunk.
- n. A brew of ale; as much ale as is brewed at one time.
- n. An ale-house.
Wiktionary
- n. An intoxicating liquor made from an infusion of malt by fermentation and the addition of a bitter, usually hops.
- n. A festival in English country places, so called from the liquor drunk.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An intoxicating liquor made from an infusion of malt by fermentation and the addition of a bitter, usually hops.
- n. A festival in English country places, so called from the liquor drunk.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a general name for beer made with a top fermenting yeast; in some of the United States an ale is (by law) a brew of more than 4% alcohol by volume
Etymologies
- Old English ealu, ealo, from Proto-Germanic *aluþ (compare Dutch aal, Swedish öl), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elu- ‘bitter’ (compare Latin alum ‘comfrey’, alūta ‘tawed leather’, Polish (Eastern) jełki, iłki ‘rancid’, Ancient Greek alýdimos ‘bitter’ and Albanian all ("reddish colour")). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old English ealu, alu; see alu- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Formerly, brewers made ale only twice a year, -- the _summer ale_ in”
“One such pumpkin ale is the Pumpkin Ale from Southampton Publick House.”
“The brewing process for the ale is the same, but just as the primary fermentation slows, the beer is transferred from the fermenter to a cask where it continues to ferment or condition.”
“There was a coldness in the civility of Mrs Adams which persons of accurate speculation might have observed, but escaped her present guests; indeed, it was a good deal covered by the heartiness of Adams, who no sooner heard that Fanny had neither eat nor drank that morning than he presented her a bone of bacon he had just been gnawing, being the only remains of his provision, and then ran nimbly to the tap, and produced a mug of small beer, which he called ale; however, it was the best in his house.”
“Real ale is enjoying a revival, a report reveals today, as younger drinkers and women embrace a drink which may be shedding its traditional "flat cap" image.”
The Guardian: Real ale revival continues as women and young buy more
“Rachel Evans, drinks quality manager of pub operator M&B, which runs Vintage Inns and Toby Carvery, said: "Cask ale is a fantastic match to food, with natural ingredients and strong flavours which complement many of the dishes on the menu.”
The Guardian: Real ale revival continues as women and young buy more
“At the common table, gnawing on a rack of ribs and a joint of beef, drinking ale from a serving pitcher rather than a cup, sat a massive dark-haired barbarian.”
“Don't miss out on this opportunity to try a fantastic pumpkin ale direct from the cask.”
“If you have never had a pumpkin ale, you should know that there is a wide variation in the quality of the different versions out there.”
“Some brewers gimmick-up their pumpkin ale with a sugar and spice rim.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ale’.
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Beer and Brewing
Words about beer and the making of it.
airlock, bung, carboy, diversol, hops, mashtun, beer, sparge, trub, wort, malt, malt liquor and 184 more...
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Palabras de 3 letras en Español.
La única lista que también incluye flexiónes verbales y pluralizaciones. Aún faltan algunas por encontrar.
(Por ser una lista para Scrabble, los dígrafos ll, rr, y ch se consideran com...aba, aca, aga, ahe, ahi, aho, aja, aje, aji, ajo, ala, ale and 427 more...
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food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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Wort to the wise
Brewing terms
wort, gruit, metheglin, mead, perry, mulsum, finings, irish moss, malt, hops, morat, melomel and 43 more...
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The Ginger List
Know thy enemy. (Thy enemy are the Ginger.)
Catalog all known Gingerborns here!ron weasley, carrot top, chucky finster, nicole kidman, molly ringwald, wilma flintstone, danny bonaduce, ale, tina louise as gi..., little orphan annie, rusty staub, pauline hanson and 31 more...
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Wuthering Heights
Obscure classic English words in Wuthering Heights you barely understand till you check the dictionary out.
conjecture, tenant, sinewy, peevish, pious, advent, tumult, parlour, villanous, stalwart, soliloquise, gaiters and 6 more...
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feed me
fodder
tripe, trotter, belly, beef, oyster, ei, beanz, ale, bier, jerez, crunch, saliva and 8 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 2455 more... -
strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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3LW
3 letter words, not the girl band.
boggle and speed scrabble would not be half as fun without them.aah, boa, dot, fun, ick, log, oca, pyx, sos, was, aal, bob and 342 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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Words grabbed from real life conversa...
If I've seen it, heard it, or marvelled at it, I'll stick it here.
cruft, ermine, redundant, shakespearean, camino, marvelous, stupendous, chagrin, shaven, sleek, smug, stillness and 325 more...
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Scriptie: The Return of the King
i can't carry it ..., at the end of all..., it's done, reach, eagles, veil, grass, water, cream, strawberries, barley, summer and 200 more...
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bearfax december 2006
opulent, spot, kaffee, sift, cedar, pushy, buckwheat, zydeco, chemeketa, hood, blood, food and 107 more...
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kingrat47's Words
procrustean, devolution, cacophony, hippopotamus, crunch, beware, chortled, sibilant, subtle, undermine, acromegaly, acropolis and 645 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ale.
oroboros X-word clues: "draft pick" & "inn-take". Sep 26, 2009
tbtabby Means "discount" in Finnish. Jul 13, 2009
bilby Was raw tap ale not a reviver at one lap at Warsaw? Oct 18, 2008