whole gale

Save This Word!

noun Meteorology.

a wind of 55–63 miles per hour (24–28 meters per second).

QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of whole gale

First recorded in 1795–1805

Words nearby whole gale

who knows what, whole, whole blood, whole brother, whole food, whole gale, whole-grain, wholehearted, wholeheartedly, whole hog, whole language

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use whole gale in a sentence

Then I went to sleep, waking again at seven to find it blowing half a gale of wind, which rapidly increased to a whole gale.
The Last Voyage|Lady (Annie Allnutt) Brassey
No such haul had ever fallen to the lot of any one of them—and the stranger had taken it in a whole gale of wind!
My Miscellanies, Vol. 2 (of 2)|Wilkie Collins
An hour or more before dark the wind increased, and was blowing a whole gale.
'Murphy'|Major Gambier-Parry
What seamen style a “whole gale” seemed to be brewing when the “Nancy” tripped her anchor and shook out her sails.
The Lifeboat|R.M. Ballantyne

The place it comes from must give out soon, unless a new trade wind's got fixed into a whole gale for this here ocean.
The Frozen Pirate|W. Clark Russell

British Dictionary definitions for whole gale

whole gale

noun

a wind of force ten on the Beaufort scale

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