shoal

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The actual bulk of the shoal is therefore prodigious; and its dimensions are to be measured by hundreds of thousands of miles.

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Definitions (27)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (9)

  1. noun A shallow place in a body of water.
  2. noun A sandy elevation of the bottom of a body of water, constituting a hazard to navigation; a sandbank or sandbar.
  3. intransitive verb To become shallow: The river shoals suddenly here from eight to two fathoms.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (6)

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Examples (50)

  • As for the shoal, they scattered in flashing rainbow-tinted disarray at his approach He was master of his surroundings, but there came a time when tadpoles palled upon him. —  "Wee Tim'rous Beasties" Studies of Animal life and Character
  • The Telemaque shoal, which is supposed to exist somewhere to the southward of the Cape, but whose situation has never been ascertained, had just before been the subject of their conversation. —  The King's Own
  • This shoal is a great bank of gravel and a fine clay-like detritus, the beds of which lie alternately, the thickness of each varying in different parts. —  El Kab
  • It may be, then, as Professor Sayce first suggested, that the original temple stood on the northern part of the shoal which is now washed away; this idea is confirmed by our finding in the stream bed opposite the present temple the early table of offerings shown in PL. IV, 1, with many more small fragments of inscription on pieces of sandstone. —  El Kab
  • "I have found where the shoal is now, and I know where to find deeper water.--Keep her going astern, Mr. Vapoor A boat from the fort, sir," reported a messenger, who had been sent aft by the second officer on the forecastle That looks like an inquiry into our business here," added the owner Now we are all right," said the commander, who was watching the position of the vessel very carefully. —  Taken by the Enemy
 

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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

reef ·  creek ·  inlet ·  islet ·  cove ·  isle ·  headland ·  harbour ·  ridge ·  peninsula ·  strait ·  gulf

Used in the same contextWord Family

shoal:   shoals
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 (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English shold, shallow, shallows, from Old English sceald, shallow.
  2. Probably Middle Low German or Middle Dutch schōle; see skel-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. Early modern English also shale, Sc shaul, shawl; earlymod.English also shoald, shold (dial. sheld, Scots shauld, schald, shaud, shawd), from Middle English schold, scholde; with apparently un-orig. d (perhaps due to conformation with the past participle suffix -d), prob. literally ‘sloping,’ ‘slant,’ from Icelandic skjālgr, oblique, wry, squint, = Swedish dial. skjalg, Old Swedish skälg, oblique, slant, wry, crooked, = Anglo-Saxon * sceolh (in comp. sceol -, scelg -), oblique: see shallow, a doublet of shoal.
  2. from shoal, a.
  3. Early modern English also shole; an assibilated form of scole, also scool, school, scoll, scull, skull, from Middle English scole, a troop, throng, crowd, from Anglo-Saxon scōlu, a multitude, shoal: see school, of which shoal is thus a doublet. The assibilation of scole (scool, school, etc.) to shole, shoal is irregular, and is prob. due to confusion with shoal.
  4. Early modern English also shole; from shoal, n.
 

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/ʃoʊl/
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