Pale

PALE, adjective [Latin palleo, pallidus.]

1. White or whitish; wan; deficient in color; not ruddy or fresh of color; as a pale face or skin; pale cheeks. We say also, a pale red, a pale blue, that is, a whitish red or blue. pale is not precisely synonymous with white, as it usually denotes what we call wan, a darkish dun white.

2. Not bright; not shining; of a faint luster; dim; as the pale light of the moon.

The night, methinks, is but the daylight sick;

It looks a little paler.

PALE, verb transitive To make pale

PALE, noun [Latin palus; coinciding with Eng. pole, as well as pale It has the elements of Latin pala, a spade or shovel.]

1. A narrow board pointed or sharpened at one end, used in fencing or inclosing. This is with us more generally called a picket.

2. A pointed stake; hence to empale, which see.

3. An inclosure; properly, that which incloses, like fence, limit; hence, the space inclosed. He was born within the pale of the church; within the pale of christianity.

4. District; limited territory.

5. In heraldry, an ordinary, consisting of two perpendicular lines drawn from the top to the base of the escutcheon, and containing the third middle part of the field.

PALE, verb transitive To inclose with pales or stakes.

1. To inclose; to encompass.