Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To stitch closed the eyes of (a falcon).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Good; fortunate; opportune; happy.
  • noun Good fortune; happiness; bliss.
  • noun Opportunity; time; season: as, the seel of the day: used frequently as the second element in a compound: as, hay-seel (hay-time), barley-seel. etc.
  • To lean; incline to One side; heel; roll, as a ship in a storm.
  • noun A roll or pitch, as of a ship in a storm.
  • A Middle English form of seal.
  • To close, or close the eyes of, with a thread.
  • Hence To close, as a person's eyes; blind; hoodwink.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To incline to one side; to lean; to roll, as a ship at sea.
  • noun obsolete The rolling or agitation of a ship in a storm.
  • transitive verb (Falconry) To close the eyes of (a hawk or other bird) by drawing through the lids threads which were fastened over the head.
  • transitive verb Hence, to shut or close, as the eyes; to blind.
  • noun Good fortune; favorable opportunity; prosperity. [Obs.] “So have I seel”.
  • noun Prov. Eng. Time; season.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective obsolete Good; fortunate; opportune; happy.
  • verb To sew together the eyes of a young hawk. A term from falconry
  • verb To blind
  • noun UK, dialectal Good fortune; happiness; bliss.
  • noun UK, dialectal Opportunity; time; season.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb sew up the eyelids of hawks and falcons

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English silen, from Old French cillier, from Medieval Latin ciliāre, from Latin cilium, lower eyelid; see kel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English sel, from Old English sǣle ("good, fortunate, happy"), from Proto-Germanic *sēliz (“good, happy”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *sēl- (“to calm, quiet, be favourable”). Cognate with Danish sæl ("blissful"), Swedish säll ("blissful"), Icelandic sæll ("blissful"), Gothic 𐍃𐌴𐌻𐍃 (sēls, "good, kind, useful"), Latin sōlor ("comfort, console").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French siller, ciller ("to sew up the eyelids of, hoodwink, wink"), from cil ("eyelid"), from Latin cilium ("eyelid, eyelash").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English sele, sel, from Old English sǣl ("time, occasion, a fit time, season, opportunity, the definite time at which an event should take place, time as in bad or good times, circumstances, condition, position, happiness, joy, good fortune, good time, prosperity"), from Proto-Germanic *sēliz (“luck, joy”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *sēl- (“to calm, quiet, be favourable”). Cognate with Icelandic sæla ("bliss"), Dutch zalig ("blissful, blessed"). More at silly.

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Examples

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  • Maine Supreme Court, in an appeal of a Town's eviction action, commented that "The Town did not then seel: to take possession and remove Leighton from the Porperty." see Town of Blue Hill v Leighton, 2011 ME 103

    November 5, 2011