wale

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

• noun A mark raised on the skin, as by a whip; a weal or welt.
• noun One of the parallel ribs or ridges in the surface of a fabric such as corduroy.
• noun The texture or weave of such a fabric.
• noun A gunwale.
• noun One of the heavy planks or strakes extending along the sides of a wooden ship.
• transitive verb To raise marks on (the skin), as by whipping.

from The Century Dictionary.

• Specifically, to sort or pick (coal) by hand at the mine or breaker.
• noun In wood ship-building, one of the strakes of heavy outside planking above the turn of the bilge. In wooden war-ships, the main wales extended from the lower gun-port sills to the bottom plank, the middle wales between the main-deck ports and the gun-deck ports, and the channel wales, sometimes called strings, between the spar- and main-deck ports. See bend, 3 .
• To mark with wales or stripes.
• To weave or make the web of, as a gabion, with more than two rods at a time.
• noun A rod.
• noun A ridge or plank along the edge of a ship. Compare gunwale.
• noun A timber bolted to a row of piles to secure them together and in position; a wale-piece.
• noun A wale-knot.
• noun A ridge in cloth, formed by a thread or a group of threads; hence, a stripe or strain implying quality.
• noun A streak or stripe produced on the skin by the stroke of a rod or whip.
• noun A tumor, or large swelling.
• noun A picking or choosing; the choice; the pick or pink of anything; the best.
• To seek; choose; select; court; woo.
• Choice; good; excellent.
• noun An obsolete form of weal.

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

• transitive verb To mark with wales, or stripes.
• transitive verb Prov. Eng. & Scot. To choose; to select; specifically (Mining), to pick out the refuse of (coal) by hand, in order to clean it.
• noun A streak or mark made on the skin by a rod or whip; a stripe; a wheal. See Wheal.
• noun A ridge or streak rising above the surface, as of cloth; hence, the texture of cloth.
• noun (Carp.) A timber bolted to a row of piles to secure them together and in position.
• noun Certain sets or strakes of the outside planking of a vessel
• noun A wale knot, or wall knot.
• noun (Naut.) See Wall knot, under 1st Wall.

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

• noun Something selected as being the best, preference; choice.
• verb to choose, select.
• noun A ridge or low barrier.
• noun A raised rib in knit goods or fabric, especially corduroy. (As opposed to course)
• noun The texture of a piece of fabric.
• noun nautical A horizontal ridge or ledge on the outside planking of a wooden ship. (See gunwale, chainwale)
• noun A horizontal timber used for supporting or retaining earth.
• noun A ridge on the outside of a horse collar.
• noun A ridge or streak produced on skin by a cane or whip.
• verb To strike the skin in such a way as to produce a wale.
• verb To give a surface a texture of wales.

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

• noun thick plank forming a ridge along the side of a wooden ship
• noun a raised mark on the skin (as produced by the blow of a whip); characteristic of many allergic reactions