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GALE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A strong wind moving 45-90 knots; force 7 to 10 on Beaufort scale
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural phenomena
Hypernyms ("gale" is a kind of...):
air current; current of air; wind (air moving (sometimes with considerable force) from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gale"):
moderate gale; near gale (wind moving 32-38 knots; 7 on the Beaufort scale)
fresh gale (wind moving 39-46 knots; 8 on the Beaufort scale)
strong gale (wind moving 47-54 knots; 9 on the Beaufort scale)
whole gale (wind moving 55-63 knots; 10 on the Beaufort scale)
Context examples:
As Jo waved her hands and gave a sigh of rapture, the family went off into a gale of merriment, and Mr. Laurence laughed till they thought he'd have an apoplectic fit.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Then come the sudden swirl round of the wind, the blistering gale from the south-west, the dragging anchor, the lee shore, and the last battle in the creaming breakers.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And soon came a gale of wind, and carried away Curdken’s hat, and away went Curdken after it, while the girl went on combing and curling her hair.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Sometimes I would put up my sail, and then my business was only to steer, while the ladies gave me a gale with their fans; and, when they were weary, some of their pages would blow my sail forward with their breath, while I showed my art by steering starboard or larboard as I pleased.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
We had not been six hours in the Sound, when a gale came on, which lasted four days and nights, and which would have done for poor old Asp in half the time; our touch with the Great Nation not having much improved our condition.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
He quite laughed when I asked him the question, and said there was no fear; no man in his senses, or out of them, would put off in such a gale of wind, least of all Ham Peggotty, who had been born to seafaring.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
As each boat achieved the safety of the port there was a shout of joy from the mass of people on shore, a shout which for a moment seemed to cleave the gale and was then swept away in its rush.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
They gaily ascended the downs, rejoicing in their own penetration at every glimpse of blue sky; and when they caught in their faces the animating gales of a high south-westerly wind, they pitied the fears which had prevented their mother and Elinor from sharing such delightful sensations.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
As he spoke, there sounded high above the shriek of the gale and the straining of the timbers a gust of oaths with a roar of deep-chested mirth from the gamblers in the forecastle.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The young slip of a gale, having wetted our gills, proceeded to moderate.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
