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• hale
  hale

  adjective

  free from disease or infirmity; robust; vigorous.
• Hale
  Hale

  noun

  Edward Everett, 1822–1909, U.S. clergyman and author.

hale

¹ American  

[heyl] / heɪl /

adjective

haler, halest

1. free from disease or infirmity; robust; vigorous.

   hale and hearty men in the prime of life.

   Synonyms:

   healthy, sound

   Antonyms:

   sickly

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hale ² American  

[heyl] / heɪl /

verb (used with object)

haled, haling

1. to compel (someone) to go.

   to hale a man into court.

2. to haul; pull.

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hale ³ American  

[hah-ley] / ˈhɑ leɪ /

noun

1. (in Hawaii) a simple thatched-roof dwelling.

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Hale ⁴ American  

[heyl] / heɪl /

noun

1. Edward Everett, 1822–1909, U.S. clergyman and author.

2. George Ellery 1868–1938, U.S. astronomer.

3. Sir Matthew, 1609–76, British jurist: Lord Chief Justice 1671–76.

4. Nathan, 1755–76, American soldier hanged as a spy by the British during the American Revolution.

5. Sarah Josepha 1788–1879, U.S. editor and author.

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Hale ¹ British  

/ heɪl /

noun

1. George Ellery. 1868–1938, US astronomer: undertook research into sunspots and invented the spectroheliograph

2. Sir Matthew. 1609–76, English judge and scholar; Lord Chief Justice (1671–76)

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hale ² British  

/ heɪl /

adjective

1. healthy and robust (esp in the phrase hale and hearty )

2. dialect whole

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hale ³ British  

/ heɪl /

verb

1. (tr) to pull or drag; haul

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Other Word Forms

• haleness
  noun
• haler
  noun

Etymology

Origin of hale¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English (northern and Scottish); Old English hāl “sound, uninjured”; see origin at whole, heal ( def. )

Origin of hale²

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English hal(l)en, hailen “to drag, pull,” from Old French haler, from Germanic; compare Dutch halen “to pull, fetch”; akin to Old English geholian “to get, obtain,” German holen “to fetch”; see also haul

Origin of hale³

First recorded in 1885–90; from Hawaiian; literally, “house, hall, building”

Explanation

If you're hale, you’re strong and in good health. Think "hale and hearty," the well-known phrase to describe someone who can lift a piano or work ten hours in a field without blinking an eye. Don't confuse hale with hail. Hale, again, is healthy. Hail is for hailing a cab, or hailing to Caesar, and it also means a kind of precipitation where frozen ice balls pour down from the sky. Hale is a word that conjures up country folk, farming stock, people who swear that they haven’t had to go to a doctor in ten years because they sleep with the windows open 365 days a year.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hale Hale haler haled haling

A hale and hearty speed signifies that your body’s systems—including your heart, lungs, muscles and nervous system—are working well together.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026

He has gone to lengths to appear hale, skiing with a professional snowboarder and with an Olympic gold medalist who called him a “ripper” as they raced down the mountain.

From New York Times ● May 8, 2024

During the 1918–19 flu pandemic, however, doctors and other observers noted a high death toll among young, presumably hale adults.

From Science Magazine ● Oct. 9, 2023

Gaining any new clarity about surging reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, will take time, better data gathering and diagnostic tools and, perhaps most importantly, a hale and hearty dose of nit-picking scientific scrutiny.

From Scientific American ● Jun. 9, 2023

Venerable he seemed as a king crowned with many winters, and yet hale as a tried warrior in the fulness of his strength.

From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien

Stanford-bound Connor Ohl of Newport Harbor won the 50 freestyle sprint for a second straight year in 19.96 — one-hundredth of a second off the meet record set in 2008 by Joey Hale of Redlands.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2026

How much they’re saving: Hale and his wife let their EVs charge overnight when electric costs are lower.

From MarketWatch ● May 6, 2026

Guest: Christopher Hale, author of the “Letters from Leo” Substack, “a chronicle of how Pope Leo XIV’s papacy intersects with American politics, faith, and the digital age during the presidency of Donald Trump.”

From Slate ● Apr. 16, 2026

“I know that suffering is not measurable or comparable,” Mr. Hale suggests, “but I believe this man has suffered more than he has sinned.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026

Hale found work as a cowboy on a ranch.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

Army is haler & healthier than any army has ever been in any war.

From Time Magazine Archive

He still hadn’t gone back to work, but I thought he never looked haler or heartier, or neater or spiffier.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns

And it is not because of his seventy-six years, either, for a haler and heartier man never lived—until Paula started this wicked thing upon him, and began making him bread-and-milk for supper.

From The Riddle of the Spinning Wheel by Hanshew, Mary E.

Many a haler remnant than he had gone down on a last voyage. 

From The Mutiny of the Elsinore by London, Jack

My father took it for forty years, and there wasn't a haler man in the country.

From The Daltons, Volume I (of II) Or,Three Roads In Life by Lever, Charles James

“Unsurprisingly, corporations did not relish the prospect of being haled into court for any claim anywhere they conducted business,” he wrote.

From New York Times ● Jun. 27, 2023

“Once the president is haled into court, there are innumerable obligations that flow from that,” he said.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 19, 2017

At one point the miniaturized siblings are haled into court for boarding a train without tickets.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 28, 2017

Herbert George Wells, in a fit of Blimp-like indignation, haled his landlord, Lieut.

From Time Magazine Archive

Or such-and-such a merchant had wept when haled before the Liberty Tree and sworn never to do trade with England until all grievances had been righted.

From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes

Some of the aircraft were given “vectors” that would take them around airspace over the haling warship.

From Washington Times ● Mar. 8, 2023

“There’s a special indignity that can cause diplomatic tension about haling a foreign official personally … into court,” John Bash, an attorney representing the fund and al-Rumayyan, told the court at a hearing last month.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 17, 2023

Kalanick was necessary for one part of creating the ride haling industry.

From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2017

Strange it may be, but for Jordi Savall the haling comes quite naturally.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 6, 2011

But no matter through what mire of baseness and brutality they dragged Him, haling Him from trial to trial--nothing robbed Him of the majesty of the Redeemer!

From On the Cross A Romance of the Passion Play at Oberammergau by Hillern, Wilhelmine von