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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

pall.

Senses relating to cloth.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/pɔːl/Received-Pronunciation/poːl/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/pɔl//pɑl/cot-caught-merger
  1. Senses relating to cloth. Fine cloth, especially purple cloth used for robes.

    archaic · poetic
  2. Senses relating to cloth. A heavy cloth laid over a coffin or tomb; a shroud laid over a corpse.

  3. Senses relating to cloth. A piece of cardboard, covered with linen and embroidered on one side, used to cover the chalice during the Eucharist.

  4. Senses relating to cloth. A cloth used for various purposes on the altar in a church, such as a corporal (“cloth on which elements of the Eucharist are placed”) or frontal (“drapery covering the front of an altar”).

    obsolete
  5. Senses relating to clothing. An outer garment; a cloak, mantle, or robe.

    archaic
  6. Senses relating to clothing. Something that covers or surrounds like a cloak; in particular, a cloud of dust, smoke, etc., or a feeling of fear, gloom, or suspicion.

    figuratively
    The early election results cast a pall over what was supposed to be a celebration.
    A pall came over the crowd when the fourth goal was scored.
  7. Senses relating to clothing. Especially in Roman Catholicism: a pallium (“liturgical vestment worn over the chasuble”).

  8. Senses relating to clothing. A charge representing an archbishop's pallium, having the form of the letter Y, sometimes charged with crosses.

    The flag of South Africa has a green pall
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pel- Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -iusnom. Latin -ium ? Latin pallium Old French pailebor. Old English pæl Middle English pal English pall From Middle English pal, palle, from Old English pæl, pæll, from Old French paile and Latin pallium (“cloak; covering”) (and thus a doublet of pallium), probably from palla (“piece of cloth worn as apparel”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to cover, wrap; hide, skin; cloth”)) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns).

verb/pɔːl/Received-Pronunciation/poːl/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/pɔl//pɑl/cot-caught-merger
  1. To cloak or cover with, or as if with, a pall.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From the noun pall (“cloth”).

verb/pɔːl/Received-Pronunciation/poːl/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/pɔl//pɑl/cot-caught-merger
  1. To make vapid or insipid; to make lifeless or spiritless; to dull, to weaken.

    transitive
  2. To become dull, insipid, tasteless, or vapid; to lose life, spirit, strength, or taste.

    intransitive
    The liquor palls.
Where this word comes from

Formed by aphesis from appal, appall (“(obsolete) to make pale; to weaken; to become weak; to lose flavour or become stale”), possibly under the influence of the figurative meaning of the unrelated noun pall. Alternatively, the word may be derived from Middle English pallen (“to diminish, impair, weaken; to become faint; to lose spirit”), formed by aphesis from apallen (“to become or make faint or tired; to become indifferent; to fade or cause to fade away; to dim, weaken; to become stale; to be frightened; to frighten; to become pale”), from Old French apalir (“to become or cause to become pale”), possibly from Latin pallidus (“pale, pallid; pale with fright, frightened; mouldy, musty”), from palleō (“to be pale, turn pale; to be anxious or fearful; to fade or change colour”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pel-, *pelH- (“grey; pale”)) + -idus (suffix meaning ‘tending to’ forming adjectives).

noun/pɔːl/Received-Pronunciation/poːl/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/pɔl//pɑl/cot-caught-merger
  1. A feeling of nausea caused by disgust or overindulgence.

    obsolete · rare
Where this word comes from

From the verb pall (“to make vapid”).

noun/pɔːl/Received-Pronunciation/poːl/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/pɔl//pɑl/cot-caught-merger
  1. Alternative form of pawl.

    alt-of · alternative
verb/pɔːl/Received-Pronunciation/poːl/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/pɔl//pɑl/cot-caught-merger
  1. Alternative form of pawl.

    alt-of · alternative
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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.