Showing results for "bale"

• a variation of bail.

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• bale
  bale

  noun

  a large bundle or package prepared for shipping, storage, or sale, especially one tightly compressed and secured by wires, hoops, cords, or the like, and sometimes having a wrapping or covering.
• Bâle
  Bâle

  noun

  French name of Basel.

bale

¹ American  

[beyl] / beɪl /

noun

1. a large bundle or package prepared for shipping, storage, or sale, especially one tightly compressed and secured by wires, hoops, cords, or the like, and sometimes having a wrapping or covering.

   a bale of cotton; a bale of hay.

2. a group of turtles.

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verb (used with object)

baled, baling

1. to make or form into bales.

   to bale wastepaper for disposal.

bale ² American  

[beyl] / beɪl /

noun

Archaic.

1. evil; harm; misfortune.

2. woe; misery; sorrow.

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bale ³ American  

[beyl] / beɪl /

noun

1. bail.

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bale ⁴ American  

[beyl] / beɪl /

verb (used with or without object)

baled, baling

1. a spelling variant of bail.

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Bâle ⁵ American  

[bahl] / bɑl /

noun

1. French name of Basel.

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bale ¹ British  

/ beɪl /

noun

1. a large bundle, esp of a raw or partially processed material, bound by ropes, wires, etc, for storage or transportation

   bale of hay

2. a large package or carton of goods

3. 500 pounds of cotton

4. a group of turtles

5. See wool bale

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verb

1. to make (hay, etc) into a bale or bales

2. to put (goods) into packages or cartons

3. to pack and compress (wool) into wool bales

bale ² British  

/ beɪl /

noun

1. evil; injury

2. woe; suffering; pain

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Bâle ³ British  

/ bɑl /

noun

1. the French name for Basle

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bale ⁴ British  

/ beɪl /

verb

1. a variant spelling of bail 2

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bale ⁵ British  

/ beɪl /

noun

1. a variant spelling of bail 4

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Other Word Forms

• baler
  noun
• baleless
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of bale¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Anglo-Latin bala, Anglo-French bale “pack, bale,” from unattested Frankish balla; compare Old High German balo, akin to balla; see ball ¹

Origin of bale²

First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English bealu, balu; cognate with Old Norse bǫl, Old Saxon balu, Old High German balo, Gothic balw-; akin to Russian bolʾ “pain”

Explanation

A bale is a bound-up bundle, usually made of hay. When you drive past a farm in the fall, you'll often see bales of hay scattered across the fields. A bale is a compact, easy-to-move bundle of a crop like hay or cotton. Bales are formed in various shapes by a machine called a baler, and wrapped in twine or wire so they can be efficiently transported or stored. The word bale is Old French for "rolled-up bundle," from the same Germanic root as ball.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bale Bâle baled baling

It is now able to bale its own aluminum, cardboard, and other materials used and discarded at the arena from event days and gets a rebate from Waste Management for taking it off their hands.

From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026

To visualize microscopic asbestos fibers in talcum powder, he brought a bale of hay into a courtroom and dropped a needle into the blades.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 28, 2026

She changed course and will now be going with a construction method known as straw bale, which typically entails stacking bales of straw to form walls that are coated with plaster.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 28, 2025

Many UK businesses will bale tyres and send them to India because it is more profitable and investing in shredding machinery is expensive, according to Mr Mason.

From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2025

Maybe Mr. Ryan had overheard the sounds of the struggle; he was plenty strong enough to hoist Dana like a bale of alfalfa.

From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen

From these ruins have been taken many valuable relics which are deposited in the museum of Bâle.

From Foot-prints of Travel or, Journeyings in Many Lands by Maturin Murray Ballou

Of the principal cities, in 1887, Zurich, with suburbs, had 92,685 inhabitants; Bâle, 73,963; Geneva, with suburbs, 73,504; Berne, 50,220; Lausanne, 32,954; and five others from 17,000 to 25,000.

From Direct Legislation by the Citizenship through the Initiative and Referendum by James William Sullivan

That Bâle train became less and less like a train and more and more like a descriptive catalogue.

From Boon, The Mind of the Race, The Wild Asses of the Devil, and The Last Trump; Being a First Selection from the Literary Remains of George Boon, Appropriate to the Times by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Most cities have some specialty in manufacturing, and Bâle is not without its peculiarity in this respect.

From Foot-prints of Travel or, Journeyings in Many Lands by Maturin Murray Ballou

Bâle became a great centre of the silk trade.

From The Conquest of Bread by Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin, Prince

Before Amazon, this “secondary packaging” was broken down and baled by grocers and big box stores without consumers ever clapping eyes on it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2023

At its height, huge flames tore through the former steel factory, which housed a mountain of baled waste, and thick plumes of black, acrid smoke billowed above the building's skeleton.

From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2023

If your balcony is on the breezy side, you can protect your plants by putting them behind tightly baled straw, or you can create a windbreak by securing burlap to the railing.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 30, 2021

Both recalled joining the adults as they baled hay for Mr. Scoggins’s father, and breaking for midday dinner.

From New York Times ● Jul. 4, 2021

After Palestine, when the cotton was in, baled and spoken for, Joe got married and worked even harder.

From "Jazz" by Toni Morrison

Eventually, all these materials wind up at one of four baling machines that compress them into giant blocks, which then get moved around the facility’s storage area by crew-operated forklifts.

From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026

In a noticeable moment from “Cow,” a farmer baling hay strikes his pitchfork against a stone.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 4, 2025

S&W Atlas Iron & Metal had processed scrap metal in Watts since 1949, shredding and baling aluminum cans, steel rims and copper wire.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2025

"We got some really good ones of raking up and baling," Miss Burke said.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2025

She looked like a younger version of Mom after a twelve-hour shift in the chicken factory, or Dad after a long day of baling hay.

From "Among the Hidden" by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Related Words

• bundle