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

Dente’s Verdant Structural Engineers was involved with getting straw bale approved as a building material and — along with advocates like Loescher — is pushing for the adoption of more nature-based materials into the code.

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

Remembering that Mr. Johnson said Buttons should be eating hay, Nancy looked around for a bale.

From "Pony Problems: Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, #3" by Carolyn Keene

Two hundred thousand men formed a line from Bâle to the Scheldt.

From History of the Girondists, Volume I Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution by H. T. Ryde

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

Bâle became a great centre of the silk trade.

From The Conquest of Bread by Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin, Prince

We learn from The Daily Call that, in proportion to the number of its inhabitants, Bâle is the richest city in Europe.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, October 14, 1914 by Various

From that day to the peace of Bâle he held the army in his grasp.

From Lectures on the French Revolution by John Neville Figgis

They continue to arrive from the US, Canada, Europe and Asia, baled up in shipping containers.

From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2026

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

Alfalfa was cut and baled for ranches across the Southwest.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2021

Mr. Gilchrist said he still baled hay himself.

From New York Times ● Aug. 27, 2019

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

He learned the ropes early and spent his childhood cleaning grain bins, baling hay and feeding the livestock.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 15, 2026

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

Carl dropped out of school after the eighth grade and worked twelve to fourteen hours a day on the farm, harvesting with a team of horses, baling hay, milking and feeding the cows.

From "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" by Eric Schlosser

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• bundle

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