Definitions of pales
British English : pale If one thing pales in comparison with another, it is made to seem much less important, serious, or good by it. VERBWhen someone you love has a life-threatening illness, everything else pales in comparison.
adjective
- lacking brightness of colour; whitish ⇒ pale morning light
- (of a colour) whitish; produced by a relatively small quantity of colouring agent
- dim or wan ⇒ the pale stars
- feeble ⇒ a pale effort
- (South Africa ) a euphemism for White
verb
- to make or become pale or paler; blanch
- (intransitive) often foll by before to lose superiority or importance (in comparison to) ⇒ her beauty paled before that of her hostess
noun
- a wooden post or strip used as an upright member in a fence
- an enclosing barrier, esp a fence made of pales
- an area enclosed by a pale
- a sphere of activity within which certain restrictions are applied
- (heraldry ) an ordinary consisting of a vertical stripe, usually in the centre of a shield
- See beyond the pale
verb
- (transitive) to enclose with pales
noun
- the inner of two bracts surrounding each floret in a grass spikelet Compare lemma1
- any small membranous bract or scale
prefix
- (before a vowel) variants of palaeo-
combining form
- old, ancient, or prehistoric ⇒ palaeography
combining form
- variants (esp US) of palaeo-