dell

[del]

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noun

a small, usually wooded valley; vale.

Origin of dell

before 1000; Middle English delle, Old English dell; akin to dale

Dell

[del]

noun

a male or female given name.

dells

[delz]

plural noun

dalles.

Origin of dells

by construal as a plural of dell

dell'

[del]

(in names of Italian derivation) an elided form of della: Giovanni dell' Anguillara.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for dell

glen, dale, glade, dingle, vale

Examples from the Web for dell

Contemporary Examples of dell

Sadly, Dell was killed five weeks after performing this stunt, fatally injured in a different performance.
Dirtbike Flips over Stunt Plane
Alex Chancey, The Daily Beast Video
October 21, 2014
“Oh, this is from 2005,” says Dell, a self-described Michelle Kwan “uber-fan” who lives in Yonkers.
Figure Skater Michelle Kwan Chases Gold in Rhode Island’s Gubernatorial Race
Nicholas McCarvel
April 17, 2014
Today, on his desk, sits a Dell laptop and a copy of Lincoln The Man by Edgar Lee Masters.
This Civil War Reenactor Controls Christie’s Fate
Olivia Nuzzi
March 5, 2014
Dell is faced with a cratering PC market as well as competitors like Amazon in the IT service industry.
Best Business Longreads
William O’Connor
November 10, 2013
Powers buried all five bodies outside a garage in Quiet Dell, West Virginia, where he had confined and then killed them.
Murder, She Wrote: Jayne Anne Phillips on Her New Novel
Jane Ciabattari
October 21, 2013

Historical Examples of dell

"Well, I do think it's awfully good, Dell," began the Countess.
Chip, of the Flying U
B. M. Bower
We can't do that, Dell; we got to stay here and feed this gang once more.
They of the High Trails
Hamlin Garland
I am sorry to trouble you; but I really am unable to leave the Dell.
Olive
Dinah Maria Craik, (AKA Dinah Maria Mulock)
"I have left it behind me in the dell," she said, blushing and hanging her head.
Sandman's Goodnight Stories
Abbie Phillips Walker
"Dell wasn't elected to the office," Judge Thayer explained.
Trail's End
George W. Ogden

British Dictionary definitions for dell

dell

noun

a small, esp wooded hollow

Word Origin for dell

Old English; related to Middle Low German delle valley; compare dale

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for dell

n.1

Old English dell "dell, hollow, dale" (perhaps lost and then borrowed in Middle English from cognate Middle Dutch/Middle Low German delle), from Proto-Germanic *daljo (cf. German Delle "dent, depression," Gothic ib-dalja "slope of a mountain"); related to dale (q.v.).

n.2

rogue's cant 16c.-17c. for "a young girl of the vagrant class," of uncertain origin.

A Dell is a yonge wenche, able for generation, and not yet knowen or broken by the vpright man. ... [W]hen they have beene lyen with all by the vpright man then they be Doxes, and no Dells. [Thomas Harman, "A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors," 1567]