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pale

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The definition of pale is someone or something light in color or washed out.

(adjective)

An example of pale is your face when you are sick and the color goes from your cheeks.
An example of pale is a yellow that is not bright or vibrant.

To pale is to lose the color from your face.

(verb)

An example of pale is when you see a ghost and the fright makes you lose color in your face so it appears white and afraid.

See pale in Webster's New World College Dictionary

adjective paler, palest

of a whitish or colorless complexion; pallid; wan
lacking intensity or brilliance: said of color, light, etc.; faint; dim
feeble; weak: a pale imitation

Origin: OFr < L pallidus, pale: see fallow

intransitive verb paled, paling

to become pale
to seem weaker or less important

transitive verb

to make pale

Related Forms:

palely adverb
paleness noun

noun

a narrow, upright, pointed stake used in fences; picket
a fence; enclosure; boundary; restriction: now chiefly figurative: outside the pale of the law, beyond the pale (of respectability)
a territory or district enclosed within bounds
Bot. a chaffy bract or scale; esp., a bract at the base of a floret of a composite flower
Heraldry a vertical band forming the middle third of a shield

Origin: ME < MFr pal < L palus, a stake < IE base *pak-, to fasten (as by ramming into the ground) > Gr passalos, a peg, stake, L pax, peace

paleo-: used before a vowel

See pale in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

A stake or pointed stick; a picket.
A fence enclosing an area.
The area enclosed by a fence or boundary.
a. A region or district lying within an imposed boundary or constituting a separate jurisdiction.
b. Pale The medieval dominions of the English in Ireland. Used with the.
Heraldry A wide vertical band in the center of an escutcheon.

transitive verb paled paled, pal·ing, pales

To enclose with pales; fence in.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English

Origin: , from Old French pal

Origin: , from Latin pālus; see pag- in Indo-European roots

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pale¹

adjective pal·er, pal·est

Whitish in complexion; pallid.
a. Of a low intensity of color; light.
b. Having high lightness and low saturation.
Of a low intensity of light; dim or faint: “a late afternoon sun coming through the el tracks and falling in pale oblongs on the cracked, empty sidewalks” (Jimmy Breslin).
Feeble; weak: a pale rendition of the aria.