bale

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a large quantity of material compressed and tightly bound for storage or transport

   The workers rolled a bale of cotton into the warehouse.

2. 2
   verb

   to compress and bind material into bales

   The farmers bale the hay as soon as it is dry.

3. 3
   verb

   chiefly British: to scoop water out of a boat; a spelling variant of bail

   The passengers had to bale water from the leaking dinghy.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Bale has more than one origin. As a British spelling of bail in the sense “scoop water from a boat,” it derives from an old word for a bucket based on Latin bajulus, “carrier”; the noun for a compact bundle, as in a bale of hay, arose in Middle English and is related to ball.

The bundle noun came through Middle French bale from a Germanic source related to ball; the packaging verb developed from that noun. The nautical verb is a British spelling variant of bail and has a separate history associated with using a vessel to remove water.

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary