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  

[bayl] / 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  

[bayl] / beɪl /

noun

Archaic.

1. evil; harm; misfortune.

2. woe; misery; sorrow.

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bale ³ American  

[bayl] / beɪl /

noun

1. bail.

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bale ⁴ American  

[bayl] / 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

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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”

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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

Minnesota is now moving toward allowing hempcrete and straw bale in all residential construction.

From BBC ● Mar. 16, 2026

Unlike materials like cob, straw bale is adopted in the California residential building code.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 28, 2025

“Hay. Find it in bales or rolls. It’s hard work to hay. Throw the bale off the wagon and put it on the elevator. Stack the bales in the hayloft....”

From "Because of Mr. Terupt" by Rob Buyea

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

Coming from the Lake of Constance, the clear waters of the river glide under the bridges of Bâle, and turn at right angles northwards between the Vosges and the Black Forest.

From From Pole to Pole A Book for Young People by Sven Anders Hedin

Thomas Lovell Beddoes was born in Clifton in 1803, and died at Bâle in Switzerland in 1849.

From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 12, No. 32, November, 1873 by Various

When they reached Bâle, Baxter telegraphed to the Hôtel du Rhin in Paris for a suite.

From High Noon A New Sequel to 'Three Weeks' by Elinor Glyn by Anonymous

From Bâle we go on south-westwards to Geneva.

From From Pole to Pole A Book for Young People by Sven Anders Hedin

In 2021, Australia banned exports of baled tyres after auditors checked to see where they were really ending up.

From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2025

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

His fields produce cotton that is exported, alfalfa that is trucked to dairies in California, Bermuda grass that is baled to feed horses, and honeydews and other melons that are sold in supermarkets.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 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

Upstairs, children pore over schoolbooks, mothers prepare lunch and television sets flicker in cramped living rooms, all against the constant background noise of shredders whining and baling presses pounding below.

From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 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

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

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2025

As a young man in the 1980s, Jay, a farm boy with a golden tan and muscles chiseled from hay baling and house building, went to Washington to visit a friend.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 9, 2023

A man collected this waste paper and took it away for baling.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

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