bale

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A large package of raw or finished material tightly bound with twine or wire and often wrapped: a bale of hay.
2. v. To wrap in a bale or in bales: a machine that bales cotton.
3. n. Evil: "Tidings of bale she brought” ( William Cullen Bryant).
4. n. Mental suffering; anguish: "Relieve my spirit from the bale that bows it down” ( Benjamin Disraeli).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Evil; woe; calamity; misery; that which causes ruin, destruction, or sorrow.
2. n. A large fire built out of doors and burning freely; a bonfire. specifically— A funeral pile or pyre.
3. n. A large bundle or package of merchandise prepared for transportation, either in a cloth cover, corded or banded, or without cover, but compressed and secured by transverse bands, wires, or withes and longitudinal slats. The chief articles of merchandise that are baled are cotton, wool, and hay. The weight of a bale of American cotton is between 400 and 500 pounds, varying with the season of production. A bale of cochineal is 1½ hundredweight, a bale of Spanish wood 2¼ hundredweight, a bale of caraway-seeds 3 hundredweight, a bale of Mocha coffee 303 pounds, a bale of thread 100 bolts.
4. n. A pair or set of dice.
5. To make up into a bale or bales.
6. See bail, bail, bail, bail.

Wiktionary

1. n. Evil, especially considered as an active force for destruction or death.
2. n. Suffering, woe, torment.
3. n. obsolete A large fire, a conflagration or bonfire.
4. n. archaic A funeral pyre.
5. n. archaic A beacon-fire.
6. n. A rounded bundle or package of goods in a cloth cover, and corded for storage or transportation.
7. n. A bundle of compressed wool or hay, compacted for shipping and handling.
8. n. A measurement of hay equal to 10 flakes. Approximately 70-90 lbs (32-41 kg).
9. n. A measurement of paper equal to 10 reams.
10. v. transitive To wrap into a bale.
11. v. UK, nautical To remove water from a boat with buckets etc.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. 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.
2. v. To make up in a bale.
3. v. See bail, v. t., to lade.
4. n. Misery; calamity; misfortune; sorrow.
5. n. Now chiefly poetic Evil; an evil, pernicious influence; something causing great injury.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a city in northwestern Switzerland
2. n. a large bundle bound for storage or transport
3. v. make into a bale