Etymology : Middle English, from Old English hægl; akin to Old High German hagal hail
Pronunciation : 'hA(&)l
Function : noun
Date : before 12th century
1. small pellets of ice or frozen vapor; shower of small ice particles; shower of anything, barrage (especially of bullets); salutation, greeting. rain down hail; pour down like hail, fall with force; salute, greet, welcome; call to from a distance. hail\hail\ (hāl), n. [oe. hail, ha&yogh;el, as. h?gel; akin to d., g., dan., & sw. hagel; icel. hagl; cf. gr. ka`chlhx pebble.] small roundish masses of ice precipitated from the clouds, where they are formed by the congelation of vapor. the separate masses or grains are called hailstones. thunder mixed with hail, hail mixed with fire, must rend the egyptian sky.hail \hail\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. halled ; p. pr. & vb. n. halting.] [oe. hailen, as. haqalian.] to pour down particles of ice, or frozen vapors.hail \hail\, v. t. to pour forcibly down, as hail.hail \hail\, a. healthy. see:
hale (the preferable spelling).hail \hail\, v. t. [oe. hailen, heilen, icel. heil hale, sound, used in greeting. see:
hale sound.].
2. to call loudly to, or after; to accost; to salute; to address.
3. to name; to designate; to call. and such a son as all men hailed me happy.hail \hail\, v. i.
4. to declare, by hailing, the port from which a vessel sails or where she is registered; hence, to sail; to come; -- used with from; as, the steamer hails from new york.
5. to report as one's home or the place from whence one comes; to come; -- with from. [colloq.] g. halpine.hail \hail\, interj. [see:
hail, v. t.] an exclamation of respectful or reverent salutation, or, occasionally, of familiar greeting. "hail, brave friend.".
6. Small roundish masses of ice precipitated from the clouds, where they are formed by the congelation of vapor.
7. The separate masses or grains are called hailstones.
8. To pour down particles of ice, or frozen vapors.
9. To pour forcibly down, as hail.
10. Healthy.
11. See Hale.
12. To call loudly to, or after; to accost; to salute; to address.
13. To name; to designate; to call.
14. To declare, by hailing, the port from which a vessel sails or where she is registered; hence, to sail; to come; used with from; as, the steamer hails from New York.
15. To report as one's home or the place from whence one comes; to come; with from.
16. An exclamation of respectful or reverent salutation, or, occasionally, of familiar greeting.
17. A wish of health; a salutation; a loud call. enthusiastic greeting precipitation of ice pellets when there are strong rising air currents greet enthusiastically or joyfully call for; "hail a cab" be a native of; "She hails from Kalamazoo" precipitate as small ice particles; "It hailed for an hour".
18. barrier, curtain, screen.
19. fence. enclosure.
20. 1. If a person, event, or achievement is hailed as important or successful, they are praised publicly. Faulkner has been hailed as the greatest American novelist of his generation US magazines hailed her as the greatest rock'n'roll singer in the world.
21. Hail consists of small balls of ice that fall like rain from the sky. a sharp short-lived storm with heavy hail.
22. When it hails, hail falls like rain from the sky. It started to hail, huge great stones.
23. A hail of things, usually small objects, is a large number of them that hit you at the same time and with great force. The victim was hit by a hail of bullets.
24. Someone who hails from a particular place was born there or lives there. I hail from Brighton.
25. If you hail a taxi, you wave at it in order to stop it because you want the driver to take you somewhere. I hurried away to hail a taxi. Precipitation of balls or pieces of ice with a diameter of.
26. 2-4 in. (5 mm-10 cm). Small hail (also called sleet, or ice pellets) has a diameter of less than 0.2 in. Hail can be extremely destructive to buildings and crops; if it is large enough, it may be dangerous to animals. Hailstones 6 in. (15 cm) in diameter have fallen during storms in the U.S. Midwest. Hailstorms are most common in the middle latitudes and usually last around 15 minutes. They ordinarily occur in middle to late afternoon and may accompany thunderstorms.