hail

- 18 dictionary results

hail

1 [heyl]

–verb (used with object)

1.	to cheer, salute, or greet; welcome.

2.	to acclaim; approve enthusiastically: The crowds hailed the conquerors. They hailed the recent advances in medicine.

3.	to call out to in order to stop, attract attention, ask aid, etc.: to hail a cab.

–verb (used without object)

4.	to call out in order to greet, attract attention, etc.: The people on land hailed as we passed in the night.

–noun

5.	a shout or call to attract attention: They answered the hail of the marooned boaters.

6.	a salutation or greeting: a cheerful hail.

7.	the act of hailing.

–interjection

8.	(used as a salutation, greeting, or acclamation.)

—Verb phrase

9.	hail from, to have as one's place of birth or residence: Nearly everyone here hails from the Midwest.

—Idiom

10.	within hail, within range of hearing; audible: The mother kept her children within hail of her voice.

Origin:
1150–1200; ME haile, earlier heilen, deriv. of hail health < ON heill; c. OE hǣl. See heal, wassail

Related forms:

hailer, noun

Synonyms:
2. cheer, applaud, honor, exalt, laud, extol.

hail

2 [heyl]

–noun

1.	showery precipitation in the form of irregular pellets or balls of ice more than ¹/₅ in. (5 mm) in diameter, falling from a cumulonimbus cloud (distinguished from sleet ).

2.	a shower or storm of such precipitation.

3.	a shower of anything: a hail of bullets.

–verb (used without object)

4.	to pour down hail (often used impersonally with it as subject): It hailed this afternoon.

5.	to fall or shower as hail: Arrows hailed down on the troops as they advanced.

–verb (used with object)

6.	to pour down on as or like hail: The plane hailed leaflets on the city.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE hægl, var. of hagol; c. G Hagel, ON hagl

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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hail¹ (hāl)

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

v. hailed, hail·ing, hails

v. intr.

To precipitate in pellets of ice and hard snow.
To fall like hailstones: Condemnations hailed down on them.

v. tr.
To pour (something) down or forth: They hailed insults at me.

[Middle English, from Old English hægel, hagol.]

hail² (hāl)

v. hailed, hail·ing, hails

v. tr.

1. To salute or greet.
2. To greet or acclaim enthusiastically: The crowds hailed the boxing champion.
To call out or yell in order to catch the attention of: hail a cabdriver.

v. intr.
To signal or call to a passing ship as a greeting or identification.
n.

The act of greeting or acclaiming.
A shout made to catch someone's attention or to greet.
Hailing distance: told me to stay within hail.

interj. Used to express a greeting or tribute.
Phrasal Verb(s):
hail fromTo come or originate from: She hails from Texas.

[Middle English heilen, from (wæs) hæil, (be) healthy; see wassail.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Hail

Hail\ (h[=a]l), n. [OE. hail, ha[yogh]el, AS. h[ae]gel; akin to D., G., Dan., & Sw. hagel; Icel. hagl; cf. Gr. ka`chlhx pebble.] Small roundish masses of ice precipitated from the clouds, where they are formed by the congelation of vapor. The separate masses or grains are called hailstones.

Thunder mixed with hail, Hail mixed with fire, must rend the Egyptian sky. --Milton.

Hail

Hail\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Halled; p. pr. & vb. n. Halting.] [OE. hailen, AS. haqalian.] To pour down particles of ice, or frozen vapors.

Hail

Hail\, v. t. To pour forcibly down, as hail. --Shak.

Hail

Hail\, a. Healthy. See Hale (the preferable spelling).

Hail

Hail\, v. t. [OE. hailen, heilen, Icel. heil hale, sound, used in greeting. See Hale sound.]

1. To call loudly to, or after; to accost; to salute; to address.

2. To name; to designate; to call.

And such a son as all men hailed me happy. --Milton.

Hail

Hail\, v. i. 1. To declare, by hailing, the port from which a vessel sails or where she is registered; hence, to sail; to come; -- used with from; as, the steamer hails from New York.

2. To report as one's home or the place from whence one comes; to come; -- with from. [Colloq.] --G. G. Halpine.

Hail

Hail\, interj. [See Hail, v. t.] An exclamation of respectful or reverent salutation, or, occasionally, of familiar greeting. "Hail, brave friend." --Shak.

All hail. See in the Vocabulary.

Hail Mary, a form of prayer made use of in the Roman Catholic Church in invocation of the Virgin. See Ave Maria.

Hail

Hail\, n. A wish of health; a salutation; a loud call. "Their puissant hail." --M. Arnold.

The angel hail bestowed. --Milton.

Language Translation for : hail

Spanish: granizo,

German: der Hagel,

Japanese: あられ

More Translations »

hail

Pellets of ice that form when updrafts in thunderstorms carry raindrops to high altitudes, where the water freezes and then falls back to Earth. Hailstones as large as baseballs have been recorded. Hail can damage crops and property.

hail (1)

"greetings!" c.1200, from O.N. heill "health, prosperity, good luck;" and O.E. hals, shortening of wæs hæil "be healthy" (see health and cf. wassail). The verb meaning "to call from a distance" is 1563, originally nautical. Hail fellow well met is 1581, from a familiar greeting. Hail Mary (c.1300) is the angelic salutation (L. ave Maria), cf. Luke i.58, used as a devotional recitation.

hail (2)

"frozen rain," O.E. hægl, hagol, from W.Gmc. *haglaz (cf. O.H.G. hagal, O.N. hagl, Ger. hagel "hail"), probably from PIE *kaghlo- "pebble" (cf. Gk. kakhlex "round pebble").

hail (hāl) Pronunciation Key
Precipitation in the form of rounded pellets of ice and hard snow that usually falls during thunderstorms. Hail forms when raindrops are blown up and down within a cloud, passing repeatedly through layers of warm and freezing air and collecting layers of ice until they are too heavy for the winds to keep them from falling.

Hail

frozen rain-drops; one of the plagues of Egypt (Ex. 9:23). It is mentioned by Haggai as a divine judgment (Hag. 2:17). A hail-storm destroyed the army of the Amorites when they fought against Joshua (Josh. 10:11). Ezekiel represents the wall daubed with untempered mortar as destroyed by great hail-stones (Ezek. 13:11). (See also 38:22; Rev. 8:7; 11:19; 16:21.)

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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hail

In addition to the idiom beginning with hail, also see within call (hail).

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