▪ I. shoal, n.1
(ʃəʊl)
Forms: α. 4–5 shelde. β. (Chiefly Sc.) 4–6 schald, 5 schauld, 6 schalde, shaulde, (9 dial. shall, shad); 6 pl. shawllys. γ. 5–7 sholde, 6–7 shold, should(e, 7 showld, shoald, (9 dial. shod, shoad). δ. 6 shol, shoel(l, 6–7 shole, 7 shoule, (schoole), 7–8 shoale, 7– shoal.
[Absolute use of shoal a.]
A place where the water is of little depth; a shallow; a sand-bank or bar.
| α 13.. Coer de L. 2054 The mariners unneth it withhelde, That shyppe left in the shelde. |
| β c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xvii. (Martha) 113 Quhare þe body lay, to ryvine al castine one a schald. c 1470 Henry Wallace x. 44 Bot ix or x he kest a gait befor, Langis the schauld, maid it bath dep and schor. 1529 Rastell Pastyme Prol. (1811) 5 The passage [is] so strayte and daungerous that they must nedis come thorow many straytis and shawl⁓lys. 1583 Leg. Bp. St. Androis 161 in Satir. Poems Reform. xlv, His schip come never on the schalde, But stak still on the ancker halde. c 1585 in Early Naval Ballads (Percy Soc.) 16 When shauldes and sandie bankes apears What pillot can direct his course? |
| γ 1414 26 Pol. Poems xiii. 146 On see, on lond, on sholde, and depe. 1555 T. Phaer æneid i. A ij b, And three the Easterne winde also..Out of the deepe into the sholdes and quicksands made to sinke. 1594 Blundevil Exerc., Plancius' Map (1597) 277 Deapthes, sands, showlds and rockes. 1633 T. James Voy. 24 This was nothing but shoalds to the land. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. iv. i. 137 Knowledge of Depths and Shoulds. |
| δ 1555 Eden Decades, 2nd Voy. Guiana 351 The sholes of the ryuer cauled Rio Grande. 1582 N. Lichefield Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. 24 b, She strake upon a shoel. 1589 Bigges Summarie Drake's W. Ind. Voy. 47 The shols appearing daungerous. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia vi. 215 A long and dangerous shoule of rocks and sand. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 21 We were cast vpon the shoales or flats of Mozambique. 1697 Dryden æneid v. 285 Wedg'd in the Rocky Sholes, and sticking fast. 1769 Bancroft Guiana 357 On the east side is a sandy shoal. 1853 Sir H. Douglas Milit. Bridges (ed. 3) 169 Among the shoals and eddies with which the Sutlej abounds. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (1879) I. vi. 200 There is a dangerous shoal in the harbour. |
b. fig.
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. vii. 6 Vpon this Banke and Schoole of time. 1613 ― Hen. VIII, iii. ii. 437 Wolsey, that once..sounded all the Depths, and Shoales of Honor. 1815 Byron Stanzas for Music, ‘There's not a joy’ 6 Then the few whose spirits float above the wreck of happiness Are driven o'er the shoals of guilt or ocean of excess. |
c. attrib., as shoal-bank, shoal-ground, shoal-rock; shoal-mark, a buoy or other mark set to indicate a shoal.
| 1712 W. Rogers Voy. round World 51 There are..some Shoal-Banks between them, but no Shoal-Ground before we come to this Cove. 1883 ‘Mark Twain’ Life Mississippi xi. 112 He..then began to work her warily into the next system of shoal marks. |
▪ II. shoal, n.2
(ʃəʊl)
Forms: 6–7 shoale, 6–8 shole, 7 shoole, showl, 9 shool, 7– shoal.
[Late 16th c. shole; the earlier history is uncertain. The word is etymologically identical with OE. scolu str. fem., troop, division of an army = OS. scola multitude (MLG. schole), MDu. schole multitude, flock, shoal of fishes (Du. school, WFris. skoal, NFris. sköl, shoal of fishes):—OTeut. type *skulō, f. *skul- wk. grade of *skel- to divide (whence shale n., shell n., skill n. and v., etc.).
It is possible that the OE. word may have had the sense of shoal of fishes, and in this sense may have continued in nautical use ever since, though unrecorded in ME. and early mod.E. The simpler hypothesis is that the 16th c. shole was a re-adoption of the Du. form (see above) which in the 14–15th c. had been taken into English as scole (see school n.2). The initial (ʃ) may be an English sound-substitution for the Du. (sx), or it may come from one of the Flemish dialects in which sch is pronounced (ʃ).]
1. A large number of fish, porpoises, seals, whales, etc. swimming together; = school n.2 1. Phr. in a shoal, in shoals or by shoals.
| 1579 [see 3]. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. 69 Sholes of fish frisking and playing. 1653 Milton Ps. viii. 22 Fish that through the wet Sea-paths in shoals do slide. 1774 Pennant Tour Scot. in 1772, 333 Herrings offer themselves in shoals. 1835 Marryat J. Faithful viii, The shoals of seals would follow the ship if you whistled. 1836 Uncle Philip's Convers. Whale Fishery 286 The ship..came upon a large shoal of whales. 1899 Baring-Gould Bk. West II. Cornw. xix. 314 As the season advances the shool, or shoal, comes nearer the shore. 1905 D. Smith Days of His Flesh l. 515 Supposing..that the stranger had skill in fisher-craft and had perhaps observed indications of a shoal, they obeyed. |
b. Hence occas. used of a number of aquatic animals or floating objects.
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. 31 b, The waters..bare the whole shole of them [sc. dead carcasses] before them. 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. xxiv. 190 The bubbles ascended in this Liquor, as it were in sholes. 1692 R. L'Estrange Fables xxvii. 26 A Whole Shoal of Frogs. 1839 Thirlwall Greece l. VI. 198 A shoal of boats now came off from the harbours filled with people. 1840 Ibid. VII. 219 The scaly monsters of the Nile..flocked in shoals to the place. |
† 2. A flock of birds. Obs.
| 1579–80 North Plutarch, Cicero (1595) 935 From thence there came a great shole of crowes. 1584 R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xiii. xxx. (1886) 278 To make a shoale of goslings drawe a timber log. 1659 Hammond On Ps. cvi. 15 He sent them whole sholes of quails. 1801 Huntington God Guard. Poor 98 Like a shoal of eagles. |
3. transf. a. A large number of persons thronging together or classed together; a troop, crowd.
| 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. May 20, I sawe a shole of shepe⁓heardes outgoe. 1579 E. K. Gloss, ibid., A shole, a multitude taken of fishe, wherof some going in great companies, are sayde to swimme in a shole. c 1610 G. Herbert Sonn. to his Mother, Wherewith whole showls of martyrs once did burn. 1625 Bacon Ess., Viciss. Things (Arb.) 574 When there be great Shoales of People, which goe on to populate. 1749 Smollett Gil Blas vii. viii. (1782) III. 67 The actors and actresses..poured upon me in shoals. 1791 Boswell Johnson an. 1763, The shoals of Scotchmen who flocked about him. 1848 Dickens Dombey ix, I see people going up and down the street in shoals all day. 1876 Trevelyan Macaulay II. viii. 91 The adherents of the Government..who sate for the counties were turned out by shoals. 1901 Scotsman 6 Apr. 9/7 A shoal of injured people were brought for treatment to the Royal Infirmary. |
b. A large number (of inanimate things).
| 1639 Fuller Holy War v. x. (1640) 246 Infinite are the sholes of miracles done by Christs Crosse in Jerusalem. 1688 Clear Proof Certainty Protest. Faith 7 We may expect Shoals of Texts. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. i. v. (1872) I. 42 Never-ending shoals of small troubles. 1891 ‘J. S. Winter’ Lumley xii, Notes and telegrams, which came in by shoals from morning till night. 1900 Jrnl. Soc. Dyers XVI. 12 A shoal of novelties in machinery. |
4. Comb.: shoal-cod (see quot.; cf. school-cod); shoal-net, a net for catching seals; shoal-wise adv., in shoals or crowds.
| 1836 J. Richardson Fauna Bor.-Amer. iii. 241 Gadus arenosus, Shoal-cod, Smith. 1792 G. Cartwright Jrnl. Labrador I. 181 The sealers put out two more shoal-nets, and another stopper. 18.. Blackie (Ogilvie 1882), When he goes abroad, as he does now shoalwise, John Bull finds a great host of innkeepers, etc. |
▪ III. † shoal, n.3 Obs.
[a. Du. schol in the same sense (earlier also clod, lump of metal) = MLG. scholle, schulle clod, sod, OHG. scolla fem., scollo masc. (MHG., mod.G. scholle) clod, mass of ice; perh. f. root *skul-: see shoal n.2]
A mass of floating ice; an iceberg or floe.
| 1648 Hexham ii, Een Schoole van ys, a Shoole of yce. 1713 Cal. Treas. Papers 537 The great shoals of ice that came down in the winter often damaged it [Berwick bridge]. 1760 Ann. Reg. III. 67/1 Near 100 sail have been drove from their anchors and moorings by the shoals of ice. |
▪ IV. shoal, a. (and adv.)
(ʃəʊl)
Forms: α. 1 (in proper names) sceald, 4 schealde, 5 scheld(e. β. (Chiefly Sc.) 5–7 schald, 5 schalde, shald, schawlde, schaulde, 6 schauld, 7 shalde (9 dial. shald, etc.); 5 schawd, 6 schaud (9 dial. shawd, shoad, etc.); 6 schaule, 8 (and 9 dial.) shaul, shawl. γ. 4 schoold, schoolt, 5 schold(e, scold, 5–7 shold(e, shoald, 7 should. δ. 6–7 shoale, showle, 6–8 shole, 7 shoule, 7– shoal.
[OE. sceald:—prehistoric *skalda-; a parallel formation, differing only in the suffix, appears to be the synonymous shallow a.:—OE. *scealu:—*skalwa-. The import and affinities of the base *skal- of these formations are not easy to determine; possibly it may be ‘thin layer’ as in OTeut. *skalō shale n.; this supposition would fairly well account for the sense of the English adjs.
Some etymologists have compared G. schal insipid, vapid (of liquors; hence fig. of discourse, thoughts, etc.); but the sense has little real affinity. The LG. schol (Fris. skol) shows remarkable identity in sound and meaning with the Eng. adj. (schol water shallow water, schol plögen to plow shallow), but its etymology is dubious.]
1. a. Of water, etc.: Not deep; = shallow a.1 1.
| 839 in Birch Cartul. Saxon. I. 593 æt Scealdan fleote. c 1440 Jacob's Well 65 Ȝif þi scope of penaunce be to scheld, it takyth no water of sorwe. |
| β 1375 Barbour Bruce ix. 354 He spyit, and slely gert assay Quhar of the dik the schawdest [v.r. shaldest] was. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vii. v. 769 Than Trent and Temys war sa schawlde [v.rr. schaulde, schald]. 1513 Douglas æneis v. xi. 56 Sa huge wilsum rolkis and schald [Camb. MS. schaud] sandis. Ibid. vii. xiii. 57 Inhabitand the schauld flude Vulturnus. 1577–95 Descr. Isles Scot. in Skene Celtic Scot. (1880) III. App. 429 Thair is na great waters nor rivers in this Ile [of Lewis], but small schaule burnis. 1597 Montgomerie Cherrie & Slae 1544 The watter allso is sae schald We sall it pass, evin as we wald. 1606 W. Birnie Kirk-Buriall (1833) 28 Which the Lord has set on the shalde shoare, lyke beakens to warne. 1736 Ramsay Prov. xxxi. (1750) 84 Shawl waters make maist din. |
| γ 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 131 He wolde make þat greet ryuer so schalowe [v.rr. schoolt, schoold] þat þe water schulde nouȝt reche to women kneen. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 447/2 Schold, or schalowe, noȝte depe, as water or oþer lyke, bassa. c 1460 Ibid. (Winch.) 165 Flew, or scold..bassus. a 1554 Sir H. Willoughby in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 269 After that we sounded againe, and found but 7 fadome, so shoalder and shoalder water. 1556 J. Heywood Spider & Fly xxxi, Holes, sides and toppes, brode, narrow, depe and sholde. 1633 T. James Voy. 23 The shouldest water..was 7. fad[omes]. |
| δ a 1554 Sir H. Willoughby in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 269 The boat could not come to land the water was so shoale. 1589 P. Ive Fortif. 35 The ditches are narrow and showle. a 1599 Spenser F.Q. vii. vi. 40 This Molanna, were she not so shole. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia i. 2 The second of July they fell with the coast of Florida in shoule water. 1666 Pepys Diary 15 Aug., Our shipps running all a-ground, it being so shoal water. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. 50 What the Shore was, whether Rock or Sand, whether Steep or Shoal we knew not. 1748 Earthquake Peru i. 23 Having fourteen Fathom Water in the sholest Part. 1840 Evid. Hull Docks Comm. 113, Q. What has been the effect of that extension upon the mud? A. It is much shoaler than it was before. 1858 Maury Phys. Geog. Sea vii. §430 In the Straits..the depth across the shoalest section is not more than one hundred and sixty fathoms. 1894 Law Times Rep. LXXI. 103/2 The available waterway of the cut is..greatly reduced in width by shoal water on the north. |
b. The phr. shoal water used attrib.
| 1874 J. W. Long Amer. Wild-fowl Introd. 15, I shall..separate them into..deep-water and shoal-water varieties. 1888 Clodd Story Creation iv. 34 The fossils are shown to resemble present shoal water deposits. |
c. The phr. shoal water used fig.
| 1884 ‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn xxviii. 284 It jolted her up like everything, of course; but I was over the shoal water now, so I went right along..and told her every blame thing. 1941 J. Masefield In Mill 105, I had..plenty of money in the bank to tide me over the shoal-water. |
2. fig. Of intellect, etc. (Cf. shallow a.1 6.)
| 1728 Ramsay Gen. Mistake 65 The sumphish mob of penetration shawl. 1785 Burns Twa Herds x, There's Duncan, deep, and Peebles, shaul, But chiefly thou, apostle Auld, We trust in thee. |
| Comb. 1844 Lowell Columbus 264 One day more These muttering shoalbrains leave the helm to me. |
† 3. Naut. Of a sail or a bonnet: Narrow, not wide. Obs. rare—1.
| 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xv. (Roxb.) 44/2 The Main saile showler, is the main saile made narrower or skant. Ibid. 45/1 A showler or shoule Bonnett, is to haue it shallow, or narrow. |
4. adv. [ME. schealde.] To or at a slight depth. Also fig.
| c 1315 Shoreham Poems iii. 116 Ac many man desceyued hys,..And weyneþ þat he be out of peryl, Oþer ine senne so schealde, Þat hym ne douteþ of no breche Of godes hestes healde. 1817–8 Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 150, I went very shoal with the plough, because deep ploughing would have turned up the sods. |
Hence † scheldhed [-head], shallowness.
| c 1440 Jacob's Well 168 A skete also, sumdel in þe heuyd, is raysed & reryd on bothe sydes; for ellys it myȝt noȝt receyvin but lytel wose, for scheldehed, for to castyn it out. |
▪ V. shoal, v.1 Obs. exc. dial.
Forms: 6 shole, shool(e, shoule, 6–7 shoal(e, 7 sholl.
[Of obscure origin.
Formally, it could represent an OE. *scálian equivalent to ON. *skeila suggestd as a possible origin for skail v.]
† 1. trans. To separate. Usually with out.
| 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. lxviii. 26. 254 The hypocrites..should bee sholed from the good and holy ones. 1574 tr. Marlorat's Apocalips 43 In this exhortation John treateth of the difference between the good and the bad, and of the sholing of the one from the other by the rigor of Justice. 1581 Lambarde Eiren. i. v. (1602) 23 Labouring..to increase their iurisdictions, & to shoale out themselues from the ordinarie gouernment. 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. xxvii. 164 In that he hath so shooled vs out from among the vnbeleeuers. 1642 D. Rogers Naaman 358 With such caution and encouragement as shall both sholl out the dogs, and welcome the children, whose bread it is. 1647 Trapp Comm. Rev. ii. 24 Here Christ comes with his fan, shedding and shoaling out his own from others. |
2. To divide into classes. ? Obs.
| 1805 Ann. Reg. 62 One of the reforms..was that of shoaling or classing the workmen... As to the practice of shoaling the shipwrights, as it had proved so advantageous in the merchants' yards, there was reason to conclude that it would prove equally so in those of his majesty. |
3. dial. (See quot.)
| 1887 Kent. Gloss., Shoal-in, to pick sides at cricket or any game. |
▪ VI. shoal, v.2
(ʃəʊl)
Forms: 6 shald, should, 7 showlde, shoald, shold, showl(e, 7, 9 dial. shool, 8 shole, shaul, 7– shoal.
[f. shoal a.]
I. intr.
1. Of water, a watercourse, harbour, sounding, etc.: To become shallow or more shallow.
| 1574 [implied in shoaling vbl. n.2 2]. 1584–5 Act 27 Eliz. c. 21 The Haven of Orforde..is greatelie shoulded and decaied. 1633 T. James Voy. 19 Now the water begins to showlde. 1779 Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 178 It shoals suddenly from ten to two fathoms. 1841 W. A. Brooks Treat. Navig. Rivers 57 The soundings shoal gradually also up the Rio de la Plata. 1883 Science I. 368/1 The sea..had so far shoaled as to bring up the land within 65 feet of its present level. 1897 H. Newbolt Admirals All 6 He anchored them fast where the Texel shoaled. |
b. With out: To become gradually more shallow until no water is to be seen.
| 1889 Universal Rev. Nov. 428 The limpid reedy thoroughfares shoal out To glinting silt-beds where the minnows lie. 1894 Law Times Rep. LXXI. 102/2 The water of the cut..gradually shoals out until it reaches a mud bank. |
† 2. ? To slant, slope. Obs. Cf. shore v.1 3.
| 1621 Markham Hungers Prev. 18 Then for the vpper side of the Net, you shall place it slantwise shoaling against the water. Ibid. 21 They [the sticks] shall be prickt a little shoaling or slantwise. |
II. trans.
3. Naut. To find (one's soundings) gradually more shallow; to pass from a greater into a less depth of (water), as shown by sounding.
| 1670 Narborough Jrnl. in Acc. Sev. Late Voy. i. (1694) 60 As I shoaled my soundings I had 22, and 18, and 16..Fathoms. 1731 Capt. W. Wriglesworth MS. Log-bk. of the ‘Lyell’ 3 Jan., When we sholed the Water as per Logg. 1748 Anson's Voy. i. vi. 60 We..kept shoaling our water, till at length we came into twelve fathom. 1839 Nautical Mag. 237 The lead should be kept constantly going, and the Ship tacked to the eastward as soon as the water is shoaled to 22 or 20 fathoms. 1852 Conybeare & Howson St. Paul II. xxiii. (1862) 356 The alarm of the sailors was great when they perceived how rapidly they were shoaling the water. |
b. absol. Of a ship: To come into shallow water. rare.
| 1898 Hardy Wessex Poems 100 He gained the beach, where Yeomen,..With Regulars in thousands, were enmassed to meet the Foeman Whose fleet had not yet shoaled. |
4. To cause (a piece of water) to become shallow; also, to obstruct by shoals.
| 1864 G. P. Marsh Man & Nat. 430 The maritime approaches to river harbors frequented by the ships of Phenicia..are shoaled to a considerable distance out to sea. 1865 J. H. Ingraham Pillar of Fire iii. xii, He pursued with the idea that the sea had been shoaled by the wind. |
† 5. To drive (a plough) less deeply in the soil.
| 1670 Evelyn in Phil. Trans. V. 1061 According to this proportion the husbandman must govern himself deepning or showling the Plough, as the condition of the land shall require. |
6. Otter-hunting. (See quot.)
| 1897 Encycl. Sport I. 583/2 Shoal, verb, to drive the otter down to the shallows. |
Hence shoaled ppl. a. (see quot. 1867). ˈshoaling ppl. a., growing shallow.
| 1859 Tennyson Enid 1536 Where like a shoaling sea the lovely blue Play'd into green. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Shoaled-harbour, that which is secured from the violence of the sea, by banks, bars, or shoals to seaward. 1892 Stevenson Vailima Lett. xix. 181 The four..set off in the boat across that rapidly shoaling bay of the lagoon. |
▪ VII. shoal, v.3
(ʃəʊl)
Also 7 shoole, shole.
[f. shoal n.2 Cf. Fris. skoalje, Du. scholen.]
1. intr. Of fish: To collect or swim together in a shoal or shoals.
| 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 718 About Midsommer they [sc. herrings] shoole out of the deep and vast Northen⁓sea to the coasts of Scotland. c 1611 Chapman Iliad xxi. 191 The waue-sprung entrailes, about which, Fausens, and other fish, Did shole. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VI. 279 Gesner even asserts..that he has seen them [sc. sturgeon] shoal together, at the notes of a trumpet. 1901 S. Gwynn Mater Severa, Queen's Chron. 28 The mackerel shoaling in each bay. |
2. transf. Of persons, birds, things: To crowd together, assemble in swarms. Also with advs., as together, in, up.
| a 1618 Raleigh Maxims (1642) 21 Men of the same quality, tongue and condition, doe easily shole, and combine themselves together. 1638 Wotton Let. to Sir E. Bacon 5 Dec. in Reliq. (1672) 472 Whereupon the Women..do flock to St. Maries in such troops..that the Masters of Art have no room to sit; so as the Vice-Chancellor and Heads of Houses were in deliberation to repress their shoaling thither. 1647 E. Pagitt Heresiogr. (ed. 4) B iij b, You have power to keep these Hereticks..from..sholing together to infect one another. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 288. 1817 T. L. Peacock Melincourt xxx, The distracted multitude, who were shoaling in from all quarters. 1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan III. 399 About him, on every side, were the white winged water⁓fowl..shoaling up in the van of the sea breeze. 1863 Reader 12 Sept. 284/1 In England there are none of those pamphlets and mediocre romances which shoal in France. |
Hence ˈshoaling vbl. n.2
| 1799 W. Tooke View Russian Emp. III. 148 When the shoaling of the beluga has ceased. 1884 Publ. Opinion 12 Sept. 330/1 When this has happened during a great shoaling, the herrings have in subsequent years refused to pass over the spot. |
▪ VIII. † shoal, v.4 dial. Obs.
[Of obscure origin: cf. shalder v.]
intr. Of soil: ? To crumble, become disintegrated.
| 1733 W. Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farm. 237 These stiff, cold Grounds, being of the most surly Nature, will not shoal, shatter nor crumble. 1750 ― Mod. Husb. V. iii. 7 (E.D.D.) The top of this land will shoal and run into a fine hollowness, even by very small frosts. |