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  1. grail love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A cup or plate that, according to medieval legend, was used by Jesus at the Last Supper and that later became the object of many chivalrous quests. Also called Holy Grail.
  2. n. The object of a prolonged endeavor.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Same as gradual, 2.
  2. n. In medieval legend, a cup or chalice, called more particularly the holy grail or sangreal, supposed to have been of emerald, used by Christ at the last supper, and in which Joseph of Arimathea caught the last drops of Christ's blood as he was taken from the cross. By Joseph, according to one account, it was carried to Britain. Other accounts affirm that it was brought by angels from heaven and intrusted to a body of knights, who guarded it on the top of a mountain; when approached by any one not perfectly pure it vanished from sight. The grail having been lost, it became the great object of search or quest to knights errant of all nations, none being qualified to discover it but a knight perfectly chaste in thought and act. The stories and poems concerning Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are founded on this legend, and it has been still further developed in modern times. See sangreal.
  3. n. Fine particles: in the quotation apparently referring to the fine beads or air-bubbles of mantling liquor.
  4. n. Fine gravel; sand.
  5. n. One of the smaller feathers of a hawk.
  6. n. A single-cut file with one curved and one straight face, used by comb-makers.
  7. In comb-making, to treat with a single-cut file or grail.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The Holy Grail.
  2. n. A book of offices in the Roman Catholic Church; a gradual.
  3. n. poetic Small particles of earth; gravel.
  4. n. One of the small feathers of a hawk.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. obsolete A book of offices in the Roman Catholic Church; a gradual.
  2. n. A broad, open dish; a chalice; -- only used of the Holy Grail.
  3. n. obsolete Small particles of earth; gravel.
  4. n. One of the small feathers of a hawk.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. (legend) chalice used by Christ at the Last Supper
  2. n. the object of any prolonged endeavor

Etymologies

  1. Old French graal ("cup"), from Medieval Latin gradalis. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English greal, from Old French graal, from Medieval Latin gradālis, flat dish. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Once it turns out that the "grail" is actually Mary”

    Romantic Fear

  • “The term "grail" comes from the Latin gradale, which meant a dish.”

    American Chronicle

  • “Our holy grail is the standardized test, even though these tests have been shown to be laughable in tracking student knowledge, biased towards those with more wealth and cultural capital, and destructive in narrowing and dumbing down the curriculum as schools focus on test prep to avoid closure.”

    The Huffington Post: Rick Ayers: It's Time to Decriminalize Learning

  • “OLEDS are far superior in brightness and in their compact nature. the holy grail is to make them last more than a few thousand hours. there is also a lot of hope for carbon nanotubes. — dave kliman”

    Jumping on the L.E.D. Bandwagon - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

  • “Then, at the beginning of Greenwitch, the grail is stolen back, so they don't have either of the things it took a whole book to get.”

    SeeLight:

  • “Notice what is in the center of the painting - a "grail" - i.e., chalice!”

    Archive 2008-12-01

  • “For instance, here's the "grail"-Verse/Response pair for Thursday Vespers in the Octave of Easter.”

    Office Hymns of the Octave of Easter

  • “TO ALL THOSE SAYING THIS FILM IS TOO SCI-FI - Watch Last Crusade again and for those who aren't Christians and don't believe, the idea of the holy grail is just as much fantasy and for that matter something no one believes - a cup that makes people melt is just as much scfi paranoia madness. nha on May 23, 2008 ok, I've read a lot of reviews here and I've had approximately 48 hours to get over the 12am screening I saw in London to watch my absolute fav movie franchise of all time throw a sequel at us.”

    Sound Off: Indiana Jones 4 - What Did You Think? « FirstShowing.net

  • “That’s all well and good, but the true grail is a therapeutic vaccine, one that would prompt the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells and only cancer cells, or that would consist of antibodies that do so.”

    Could The Cure For Cancer Come From … Tobacco ?!? | Disinformation

  • “ON FINDING THE HOLY GRAIL yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'ON FINDING THE HOLY GRAIL'; yahooBuzzArticleSummary = 'Article: The path of the grail is the path of love.”

    ON FINDING THE HOLY GRAIL

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synonyms (5)

Words with the same meaning

  1. gradual
  1. chalice
  1. gravel
  1. platter
  1. sangrail

hypernyms (6)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. chalice
  1. goblet
  1. objective
  1. aim
  1. target
  1. object

hyponyms (1)

Words that are more specific

  1. Holy Grail

same context (23)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. wellspring
  2. meshing
  3. battleship
  4. deaconess
  1. 'qt
  2. rapper-strong
  3. tryst
  4. deliverers
  1. rishi
  2. spirite
  3. promotive
  4. Angstrom
  1. sabbat
  2. rumpus
  3. hill'
  4. umma
  1. offerer
  2. song-book
  3. jeez
  4. time-sink
  1. hungering
  2. wather
  3. name

rhymes (83)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Bayle
  2. Braille
  3. Dail
  4. Dale
  5. Gael
  6. Gail
  7. Galle
  8. Gayle
  9. Hale
  10. Jarrell
  11. Male
  12. Mikhail
  13. Quayle
  14. Sale
  15. Yale
  16. ail
  1. ale
  2. assail
  3. avail
  4. bail
  5. baile
  6. bale
  7. braille
  8. cail
  9. cale
  10. calle
  11. carrell
  12. crail
  13. curtail
  14. dail
  15. dale
  16. derail
  1. detail
  2. email
  3. entail
  4. exhale
  5. fail
  6. faile
  7. flail
  8. frail
  9. gale
  10. hail
  11. hale
  12. impale
  13. inhale
  14. jail
  15. kail
  16. kale
  1. mail
  2. maile
  3. male
  4. nail
  5. nale
  6. pail
  7. pale
  8. prevail
  9. quail
  10. quale
  11. rafale
  12. rail
  13. rayle
  14. reil
  15. sail
  16. sale
  1. salle
  2. sayle
  3. scale
  4. shale
  5. smale
  6. snail
  7. stale
  8. surveil
  9. tail
  10. tale
  11. trail
  12. travail
  13. unveil
  14. vail
  15. vale
  16. veil
  1. wail
  2. wale
  3. whale

reverse dictionary (14)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. sangraal
  2. graal
  1. sangreal
  2. grayle
  1. non-black
  2. Holy Grail
  1. grail
  2. Slip-Up
  1. Siege Perilous
  2. Galahad
  1. allegorize
  2. Abbey
  1. quest
  2. Sir Galahad

tags (1)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. sangreal

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tagging (1)

Words tagged ‘grail’

  1. graal

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Lists

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‘grail’ has been looked up 1917 times, loved by 2 people, added to 13 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 6.