hail

Etymology 1

From Middle English hayle, haile, hail, from Old English hæġl, hæġel, from Proto-Germanic *haglaz (compare West Frisian heil, Low German Hagel, Dutch hagel, German Hagel, Danish hagl, Norwegian hagl)). Either from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰlos (“pebble”), or from *ḱoḱló-, a reduplication of *ḱel- (“cold”) (compare Old Norse héla (“frost”)). Root-cognates outside of Germanic include Welsh caill (“testicle”), Breton kell (“testicle”), Lithuanian šešėlis (“shade, shadow”), Ancient Greek κάχληξ (kákhlēx, “pebble”), Albanian çakëll (“pebble”), Sanskrit शिशिर (śíśira, “cool, cold”).

noun

1. (meteorology, uncountable) Balls or pieces of ice falling as precipitation, often in connection with a thunderstorm.
2. (meteorology, countable) An occurrence of this type of precipitation; a hailstorm.
3. (countable, by extension) A rapid, intense barrage by a large number of projectiles or other objects.
   Their lack of good intelligence also meant that they vastly overestimated the size of their foes for far too long, hails of armor-piercing shells doing comparatively little damage compared to the high explosive that they should have been using. 27 February 2019, Drachinifel, 40:01 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 2022-11-03

verb

1. (impersonal) Of hail, to fall from the sky.
   They say it's going to hail tomorrow.
2. (intransitive) To send or release hail.
   The cloud would hail down furiously within a few minutes.
3. To pour down in rapid succession.

Etymology 2

From Middle English heil (“healthy, sound”), from Old Norse heill, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, entire, healthy”). The verb is from Middle English heilen, itself from the adjective. Doublet of whole, hale, and heil.

adj

1. (obsolete) Healthy, whole, safe.

verb

1. (transitive) To greet; give salutation to; salute.
2. (transitive) To name; to designate; to call.
   He was hailed as a hero.
3. (transitive) To call out loudly in order to gain the attention of.
   Hail a taxi.
   1. (transitive, by extension, UK, Australia) To indicate, from a designated stop or otherwise, to the driver of a public transport vehicle that one wishes to board and travel on the vehicle, usually using hand signals such as waving.
      In Melbourne, you would usually have to hail a tram when you are travelling late at night and there are no other passengers waiting at your stop.
4. (transitive) To signal in order to initiate communication with.

intj

1. (archaic or poetic) An exclamation of respectful or reverent salutation, or, occasionally, of familiar greeting.