| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
| |
| hail1 |
| |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  h l |
| NOUN: | 1. Precipitation in the form of spherical or irregular pellets of ice larger than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) in diameter. 2. Something that falls with the force and quantity of a shower of ice and hard snow: a hail of pebbles; a hail of criticism. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: hailed, hail·ing, hails
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To precipitate in pellets of ice and hard snow. 2. To fall like hailstones: Condemnations hailed down on them. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | To pour (something) down or forth: They hailed insults at me. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old English hægel, hagol.
| | |
| |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
