Link Centre Dictionary

pall

UK/pɔːl/ US/poːl/ rare archaic obsolete rare
verb (8) noun (3)

verb

1.
2.
3.

cover with a pall

4.

cause surfeit through excess though initially pleasing

  • “Too much spicy food cloyed his appetite”
Synonyms
5.

cause to become flat

  • “pall the beer”
6.

lose sparkle or bouquet

  • “wine and beer can pall”
Synonyms
7.

lose strength or effectiveness; become or appear boring, insipid, or tiresome (to)

  • “the course palled on her”
8.

noun

1.
2.
3.

Origin

Formed by aphesis from appal, appall (“(obsolete) to make pale; to weaken; to become weak; to lose flavour or become stale”), possibly under the influence of the figurative meaning of the unrelated noun pall. Alternatively, the word may be derived from Middle English pallen (“to diminish, impair, weaken; to become faint; to lose spirit”), formed by aphesis from apallen (“to become or make faint or tired; to become indifferent; to fade or cause to fade away; to dim, weaken; to become stale; to be frightened; to frighten; to become pale”), from Old French apalir (“to become or cause to become pale”), possibly from Latin pallidus (“pale, pallid; pale with fright, frightened; mouldy, musty”), from palleō (“to be pale, turn pale; to be anxious or fearful; to fade or change colour”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pel-, *pelH- (“grey; pale”)) + -idus (suffix meaning ‘tending to’ forming adjectives).

Phrases

  • cast a pall
  • inverted pall
  • pall inverted
  • pall reversed
  • per pall
  • reversed pall

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Causes

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.