pall

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“
They wrapped up the dead body in the sea cloak which had served as a pall, and went out, bearing it along with them.

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Definitions (52)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (12)

  1. noun A cover for a coffin, bier, or tomb, often made of black, purple, or white velvet.
  2. noun A coffin, especially one being carried to a grave or tomb.
  3. noun A covering that darkens or obscures: a pall of smoke over the city.
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Examples (50)

  • In capstans, and other machines, there is a mechanical device, with which every person is acquainted, termed a pall or catch, by which the work gained in the effort last made shall be secured, and the machine prevented from turning back again. —  The Lieutenant and Commander
  • The flag under which he fought at Algiers was used for a pall, and a young oak, to bear his name, was planted near the grave; a suitable memorial for a British seaman. —  The Life of Admiral Viscount Exmouth
  • Neil recalls the pall of black smoke that rose up and the kids all rushing to see the fire engines in action. —  Whitehaven News headlines
  • The white pall is a symbol that one's baptism is complete in death. —  Shuck and Jive
  • Herald sports writer Rob Malsom covered the game and reported that when Tymochko - who courageously rehabilitated and recovered from an ACL injury sustained last summer - went down after injuring her other knee, a pall was cast over E.J. McCluskey Gymasium as the youngster cried out and writhed in pain.
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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

veil ·  mantle ·  streamer ·  canopy ·  haze ·  blackness ·  drapery ·  murk ·  gloom ·  wisp ·  wreath ·  plume
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 (8)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English pal, from Old English pæll, cloak, covering, from Latin pallium.
  2. Middle English pallen, to grow feeble, probably short for appallen; see appall.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (6)

  1. Early modern English also paul; from Middle English pal, palle, pel, pelle, pælle, from Anglo-Saxon pæll = Old French palle, pale, paile, paule, poele, poile, paesle, etc., French poêle = Provencal palli, pali = Spanish palio = Portuguese Italian pallio, mantle, shroud, from Latin palla, a robe, mantle, curtain; cf. Latin pallium, pall, a coverlet, a (Greek) robe or mantle: See pallium.
  2. from pall, n.
  3. from Middle English pallen, by apheresis for appallen, apallen, appal: see appal. In part perhaps from Welshpallu, fail, cease, neglect; cf.pall, failure.
  4. from pall, v.
  5. Middle English pallen; cf. Old French paler, chase.
  6. from Hindustani pāl, a small tent, also a sail, a dam, dike, from Sanskrit √ pā, protect.
 

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/pɔl/
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