Link Centre Dictionary

shoal

UK/ʃəʊl/ uncommon archaic
noun (3) verb (2)

noun

1.

a sandbank in a stretch of water that is visible at low tide

2.

a stretch of shallow water

Synonyms
3.

a large group of fish

  • “a school of small glittering fish swam by”
Synonyms

verb

1.

make shallow

  • “The silt shallowed the canal”
Synonyms
2.

become shallow

  • “the lake shallowed over time”
Synonyms

Origin

1570, presumably from Middle English *schole (“school of fish”), from Old English sċeolu, sċolu (“troop or band of people, host, multitude, division of army, school of fish”), from Proto-West Germanic *skolu, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to divide, split, separate”). Cognate with West Frisian skoal (“shoal”), Middle Low German schōle (“multitude, troop”), Dutch school (“shoal of fishes”). Doublet of school.

Phrases

  • Glenburnie-Birchy Head-Shoal Brook
  • James Shoal
  • Muscle Shoals
  • Panatag Shoal
  • Rocks and Shoals
  • Scarborough Shoal
  • Shoal Bay
  • shoal grass

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Part of

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