hail

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Others, bound upon the same mission as himself, must be close at hand; and staggering now to his feet, he placed his gloved hands to his lips and gave forth a loud echoing "Ahoy The next moment his heart beat high with joy, and the horrible perils of frost and darkness in that unsheltered place faded away into nothingness, for his hail was answered from close at hand Ahoy!

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Definitions (47)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (14)

  1. noun Precipitation in the form of spherical or irregular pellets of ice larger than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) in diameter.
  2. noun Something that falls with the force and quantity of a shower of ice and hard snow: a hail of pebbles; a hail of criticism.
  3. intransitive verb To precipitate in pellets of ice and hard snow.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (17)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (8)

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Examples (50)

  • Then I walk in and hail, hail, the gang's all here, the whole team rallied round the table, smiling, joking, slapping backs. —  TAMI HOAG
  • And the rains that come, with hail--but here you don't need worry, for there are no crops for the hail to spoil. —  Maw's Vacation The Story of a Human Being in the Yellowstone
  • To-morrow about this time I will send down a very heavy fall of hail, such as has not been in Egypt from the day that it became a nation until now So Jehovah sent down hail upon the land of Egypt, and the lightning flashing in the midst of the hail was very severe, such as had not been before in all Egypt since it became a nation. —  The Children's Bible
  • And accordingly--hail, King of England!" —  Chivalry
  • The best answer to give to such a hail is silence Contrary to expectation the boats did not again hail, but in a few minutes the dark hull of the British cruiser became indistinctly visible as it slipped swiftly through the water before the freshening breeze, and neared the comparatively slow-going whaler rapidly. —  The Red Eric
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

sleet ·  rain ·  tempest ·  shower ·  thunder ·  volley ·  hurricane ·  torrent ·  blast ·  squall ·  crackle ·  lightning

Used in the same contextWord Family

hail:   hailed ·  hailing ·  hails
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (7)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old English hægel, hagol.
  2. Middle English heilen, from (wæs) hæil, (be) healthy; see wassail.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. from Middle English hayle, haʒel, from Anglo-Saxon hægel, hægl, hagol, hagal = Dutch hagel = Low German hagel = Old High German hagal, Middle High German G. hagel = Icelandic hagl = Swedish Danish hagel, hail. Cf. Greek κάχληξ, κόχλαξ, a pebble, gravel; cf. hailstone.
  2. English dial. also haggle (see haggle); from Middle English hailen, from Anglo-Saxon hagalian = Dutch hagelen = German hageln = Icelandic hagla, hegla = Swedish hagla = Danish hagle, hail; from the noun.
  3. A particular use of hail, a., = hale, a., after Icelandic heill in similar use, as Heill, Magnus! hail, Magnus! kom heill, welcome (‘come hale’)! far heill, farewell (‘go hale’)! sit heill (‘sit hale’)! etc.; so in Anglo-Saxon, hāl beó thū, or hāl wes thū, hail! literally ‘be thou whole’ (see wassail). The Icelandic heill, English hail, hale = Anglo-Saxon hāl, English whole. The interjection hail is thus an abbreviated sentence expressing a wish, ‘be whole,’ i. e., be in good health, and equivalent to L. salve, plural salvete, or ave, plural avete (see salve and ave).
  4. from Middle English hailen, heylen, heʒlen, salute, greet, from hail, heil, as a salutation: see hail, interj. Cf. equivalent hailse, halse.
  5. from hail, v.
 

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/heɪl/
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