Definitions of wale

1. thick plank forming a ridge along the side of a wooden ship

2. a raised mark on the skin ( as produced by the blow of a whip); characteristic of many allergic reactions

3. A streak or mark made on the skin by a rod or whip; a stripe; a wheal. See Wheal.

4. A ridge or streak rising above the surface, as of cloth; hence, the texture of cloth.

5. A timber bolted to a row of piles to secure them together and in position.

6. Certain sets or strakes of the outside planking of a vessel; as, the main wales, or the strakes of planking under the port sills of the gun deck; channel wales, or those along the spar deck, etc.

7. A wale knot, or wall knot.

8. To mark with wales, or stripes.

9. To choose; to select; specifically ( Mining), to pick out the refuse of ( coal) by hand, in order to clean it.

10. A ridge, as on the surface of cloth; a mark left by the stroke of a whip.

11. A raised streak left by a stripe: a ridge on the surface of cloth: a plank all along the outer timbers on a ship's side.

12. To choose: to select. Burns.

13. The act of choosing: the choice: a person or thing that is excellent: the pick: the best. " The pick and wale."- Burns.

14. A ridge; raised streak left by a lash: plank along a ship's side.

15. To lash; flog. whale.

16. To mark with wales or strakes.

17. A ridge made by flogging.

18. A ridge or strake, as in the planking of a vessel.

19. A ridge or streak in cloth, rising above the rest; a streak or stripe; the mark of a rod or whip on animal flesh.

20. To mark with stripes. Wales of a ship, an assemblage of strong planks, extending along a ship's sides.

21. The raised streak on the skin left by a stripe; the outward timbers in a ship's side on which men set their feet when they clamber up; a ridge or streak rising above the surface of cloth, & c.

22. To mark, as the skin, with stripes; to make wales or ridges on.