haul.
To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle.
Meaning & usage
To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle.
to haul logs to a sawmill
To draw or pull something heavy.
To carry or transport something, with a connotation that the item is heavy or otherwise difficult to move.
To drag, to pull, to tug.
Followed by up: to summon to be disciplined or held answerable for something.
To pull apart, as oxen sometimes do when yoked.
To steer (a vessel) closer to the wind.
Of the wind: to shift fore (more towards the bow).
To haul ass (“go fast”).
“How fast was he goin’?” / “I don’t know exactly, but he must’ve been haulin’, given where he landed.”
Where this word comes from
From Middle English hālen, hailen, haulen, halien (“to drag, pull; to draw up”), from Old French haler (“to haul, pull”), from Frankish *halōn (“to drag, fetch, haul”) or Middle Dutch halen (“to drag, fetch, haul”), possibly merging with Old English *halian (“to haul, drag”); all from Proto-Germanic *halōną, *halēną, *hulōną (“to call, fetch, summon”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, cry, summon”). The noun is derived from the verb. Cognates The word is cognate with Danish hale (“to haul”), Middle Dutch halen (“to draw, fetch, haul”), Dutch halen (“to fetch, bring, haul”), Old Frisian halia, Saterland Frisian halen (“to draw, haul, pull”), Low German halen (“to draw, pull”), Old High German halôn, holôn, German holen (“to fetch, get”), Norwegian hale (“to haul”), Old Saxon halôn (“to fetch, get”), Swedish hala (“to hale, haul, pull, tug”), and related to Old English ġeholian (“to get, obtain”).
An act of hauling or pulling, particularly with force; a (violent) pull or tug.
The distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long.
Getting to his place was a real haul.
I find long-haul travel by airplane tiring.
An amount of something that has been taken, especially of fish, illegal loot, or items purchased on a shopping trip.
The robber’s haul was over thirty items.
The trawler landed a ten-ton haul.
Ellipsis of haul video (“video posted on the Internet consisting of someone showing and talking about recently purchased items”).
A bundle of many threads to be tarred.
Four goals scored by one player in a game.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English hālen, hailen, haulen, halien (“to drag, pull; to draw up”), from Old French haler (“to haul, pull”), from Frankish *halōn (“to drag, fetch, haul”) or Middle Dutch halen (“to drag, fetch, haul”), possibly merging with Old English *halian (“to haul, drag”); all from Proto-Germanic *halōną, *halēną, *hulōną (“to call, fetch, summon”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, cry, summon”). The noun is derived from the verb. Cognates The word is cognate with Danish hale (“to haul”), Middle Dutch halen (“to draw, fetch, haul”), Dutch halen (“to fetch, bring, haul”), Old Frisian halia, Saterland Frisian halen (“to draw, haul, pull”), Low German halen (“to draw, pull”), Old High German halôn, holôn, German holen (“to fetch, get”), Norwegian hale (“to haul”), Old Saxon halôn (“to fetch, get”), Swedish hala (“to hale, haul, pull, tug”), and related to Old English ġeholian (“to get, obtain”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.