
verb (used with object), haled, hal·ing.
- to compel (someone) to go: to hale a man into court.
- to haul; pull.
noun
- (in Hawaii) a simple thatched-roof dwelling.
adjective
- healthy and robust (esp in the phrase hale and hearty)
- Scot and Northern English dialect whole
verb
- (tr) to pull or drag; haul
noun
- George Ellery. 1868–1938, US astronomer: undertook research into sunspots and invented the spectroheliograph
- Sir Matthew. 1609–76, English judge and scholar; Lord Chief Justice (1671–76)
“healthy,” Old English hal “healthy, entire, uninjured” (see health). The Scottish and northern English form of whole; it was given a literary sense of “free from infirmity” (1734). Related: Haleness.
c.1200, “drag; summon,” in Middle English used of arrows, bowstrings, reins, anchors, from Old French haler “to pull, haul” (12c.), from a Germanic source, perhaps Frankish *halon or Old Dutch halen; probably also from Old English geholian “obtain” (see haul). Figurative sense of “to draw (someone) from one condition to another” is late 14c. Related: Haled; haling.