SG Heritage Dictionary

Wale [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. In cloth, a ridge or streak rising above the rest. We say, cloth is wove with a wale

2. A streak or stripe; the mark of a rod or whip on animal flesh.

3. WALE s of a ship, an assemblage of strong planks, extending along a ships sides throughout the whole length, at different heights, and serving to strengthen the decks and form the curves. They are distinguished into the main wale and the channel wale

Wale [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. A streak or mark made on the skin by a rod or whip; a stripe; a wheal. See Wheal.

2. A ridge or streak rising above the surface, as of cloth; hence, the texture of cloth.

3. A timber bolted to a row of piles to secure them together and in position.

4. Certain sets or strakes of the outside planking of a vessel; as, the main wales, or the strakes of planking under the port sills of the gun deck; channel wales, or those along the spar deck, etc.

5. A wale knot, or wall knot.

Wale [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. To mark with wales, or stripes.

2. To choose; to select; specifically (Mining), to pick out the refuse of (coal) by hand, in order to clean it.

Wale-knot [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

A single wale-knot is made by untwisting the ends of a rope, and making a bight with the first strand; then passing the second over the end of the first, and the third over the end of the second, and through the bight of the first. The double is made by passing the ends, singly, close underneath the first wale, and thrusting them upwards through the middle, only the last end comes up under two bights.