Pale /(pāl)/

Pale

a.
  1. Wanting in color; not ruddy; dusky white; pallid; wan; as, a pale face; a pale red; a pale blue.
    Speechless he stood and pale.
    They are not of complexion red or pale.
    — T. Randolph.
  2. Not bright or brilliant; of a faint luster or hue; dim; as, the pale light of the moon.
    The night, methinks, is but the daylight sick; It looks a little paler.

Pale

n.
  1. Paleness; pallor. [R.]

Pale

v. i.

imp. & p. p. Paled; p. pr. & vb. n. Paling

  1. To turn pale; to lose color or luster.
    Apt to pale at a trodden worm.

Pale

v. t.
  1. To make pale; to diminish the brightness of.
    The glowworm shows the matin to be near, And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire.

Pale

n.
  1. A pointed stake or slat, either driven into the ground, or fastened to a rail at the top and bottom, for fencing or inclosing; a picket.
    Deer creep through when a pale tumbles down.
  2. That which incloses or fences in; a boundary; a limit; a fence; a palisade.
  3. A space or field having bounds or limits; a limited region or place; an inclosure; -- often used figuratively.
  4. A stripe or band, as on a garment.
  5. One of the greater ordinaries, being a broad perpendicular stripe in an escutcheon, equally distant from the two edges, and occupying one third of it. (Her.)
  6. A cheese scoop.
  7. A shore for bracing a timber before it is fastened. (Shipbuilding)

Phrases & Compounds
English pale
the limits or territory within which alone the English conquerors of Ireland held dominion for a long period after their invasion of the country in 1172.
beyond the pale
outside the limits of what is allowed or proper; also, outside the limits within which one is protected.

Pale

v. t.
  1. To inclose with pales, or as with pales; to encircle; to encompass; to fence off.
    [Your isle, which stands] ribbed and paled in With rocks unscalable and roaring waters.