| 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. |
| 4. | to call out in order to greet, attract attention, etc.: The people on land hailed as we passed in the night. |
| 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. |
| 8. | (used as a salutation, greeting, or acclamation.) |
| 9. | hail from, to have as one's place of birth or residence: Nearly everyone here hails from the Midwest. |
| 10. | within hail, within range of hearing; audible: The mother kept her children within hail of her voice. |
| 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. |