Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A portion of the amnion, especially when it covers the head of a fetus at birth.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A form used in gluing veneers to curved surfaces. It is shaped to the exact curve or form of the piece to be veneered, and is clamped against the veneer until the glue has set.
- noun A stalk; stem.
- noun A cabbage.
- noun In the middle ages, and down to the seventeenth century
- noun A net for confining the hair, worn by women.
- noun More rarely, a head-dress like a flat turban.
- noun Any kind of small net; a net.
- noun A popular name for a membrane investing the viscera, such as the peritoneum or part of it, or the pericardium.
- noun A portion of the amnion or membrane enveloping the fetus, which sometimes encompasses the head of a child when born.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A covering of network for the head, worn by women; also, a net.
- noun (Anat.) The fold of membrane loaded with fat, which covers more or less of the intestines in mammals; the great omentum. See
Omentum . - noun A part of the amnion, one of the membranes enveloping the fetus, which sometimes is round the head of a child at its birth; -- called also a
veil .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The surface of a press that makes contact with panel product, especially a removable plate or sheet.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the inner membrane of embryos in higher vertebrates (especially when covering the head at birth)
- noun part of the peritoneum attached to the stomach and to the colon and covering the intestines
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The bull whip which was used cut clear through into what we called caul, or the fat of his neck, and he died in the string, hanging by his hands.
Sunshine and Shadow of Slave Life. Reminiscences As Told by Isaac D. Williams to "Tege" 1885
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* The caul is a, thin membrane, about the consistence of very fine silk, which sometimes covers the head on a new-born infant like a cap.
Phil Purcel, The Pig-Driver; The Geography Of An Irish Oath; The Lianhan Shee Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of William Carleton, Volume Three William Carleton 1831
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You must know, Madam, that some people are born with a membrane over the face, which is termed a caul, and there has been a vulgar error that such people can never be drowned, especially if they wear this caul about their person in after-life.
The Privateersman Frederick Marryat 1820
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You must know, Madam, that some people are born with a membrane over the face, which is termed a caul, and there has been a vulgar error that such people can never be drowned, especially if they wear this caul about their person in after-life.
The Privateer's-Man One hundred Years Ago Frederick Marryat 1820
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(_b_) Outside fat, next the skin, called caul fat.
Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Household Management Ontario. Ministry of Education
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Every means was used for the recovery o 'the boy, but it was a' useless, he was quite deed an 'caul'.
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Every means was used for the recovery o 'the boy, but it was a' useless, he was quite deed an 'caul'.
Stories and Sketches Harriet S. Caswell
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Some will, or used to, rob themselves of the necessities of life to purchase a baby's "caul," and wear it around their neck as a charm.
The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol 2 (of 2) Harry Furniss
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"Eh, Cosmo, laddie, ye'll get yer deid o 'caul'!" she cried.
Warlock o' Glenwarlock George MacDonald 1864
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Secondly, that final track 'Marais Le Nit' or 'The Night Marsh' (30 minutes or so of a muted chorus of frog calls and thrumming crickets) which seems to have caused to much consternation across the web - to me it acts as a kind of caul that hangs lightly across the rest of the album, an index of the elemental nature of the themes contained within it.
The Line Of Best Fit Matt Poacher 2009
skipvia commented on the word caul
A piece of (usually) scrap wood inserted between a clamp's jaws and the items being clamped to distribute pressure and keep the clamp from marring the wood.
November 20, 2007
reesetee commented on the word caul
It's fascinating to look at the WeirdNet definition of this word, then the tag, then your definition, skipvia. A versatile word, to be sure.
November 20, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word caul
And yet, the first thing I think of when I see this word is the remnant of the amniotic sac that covered some babies' heads when they were born. I mostly see it in historical fiction, but they say this dried thing had (or conferred) magical powers, especially as a protective talisman for the person who was born with it.
November 20, 2007
reesetee commented on the word caul
Yes! I was thinking of that too, only it wasn't represented here--but now it is. :-) Dickens had David Copperfield born with one. And didn't Shakespeare's Hamlet have one too?
November 20, 2007
jinglebelljosie commented on the word caul
a jeweled hairnet, especially worn by women in the Renaissance
August 15, 2008