shoal

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Shallow.

   shoal water

2. 2
   noun

   A sandbank or sandbar creating a shallow.

   'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.

3. 3
   noun

   A shallow in a body of water.

   The depth of your pond should be six feet; and on the sides some shoals for the fish to sun themselves in and to lay their spawn.

4. 4
   verb

   To cause a shallowing; to come to a more shallow part of.

   Noting the rate at which she shoals her water -[…]

5. 5
   verb

   To become shallow.

   The colour of the water shows where it shoals.

6. 6
   noun

   Any large number of persons or things.

   Shoals of tourists

7. 7
   noun

   A large number of fish (or other sea creatures) of the same species swimming together.

   c. 1661, Edmund Waller, On St. James's Park Beneath, a shoal of silver fishes glides.

8. 8
   verb

   To collect in a shoal; to throng.

   The fish shoaled about the place.

Etymology

1570, presumably from Middle English *schole (“school of fish”), from Old English sċeolu, sċolu (“troop or band of people, host, multitude, division of army, school of fish”), from Proto-West Germanic *skolu, from Proto-Germanic *skulō (“crowd”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to divide, split, separate”). Cognate with West Frisian skoal (“shoal”), Middle Low German schōle (“multitude, troop”), Dutch school (“shoal of fishes”). Doublet of school.