▪ I. † heal, hele, n. Obs. exc. Sc.
Forms: 1 hǽlu, hǽlo, hǽl, 2–3 hæle, 2–6 hele, 2–7 heale, 4–5 heel(e, 6–7 heal; also 4 hel, Sc. heile, heyle, 5 helle, (ȝele), 5 north., 5–7 Sc. heill, 6 Sc. heil, 7–8 Sc. heal(l, 9 Sc. hale.
[OE. hǽlu, hǽlo, hǽl, corresp. to OS. hêli (MDu. heile), OHG. heilî, hailî, hêlî (MHG. heile), Goth. *hailei, -ein, from hail-s, OE. hál adj. hale, whole; one of the abstr. fems. in WGer. -î, from earlier -în, which in OE. changed this ending to -u. Cf. the doublets hail n.2, hale n.1]
1. Sound bodily condition; freedom from sickness; health.
| a 1000 Crist 1654 Þær is..hælu butan sare. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 342 Him cymð god hæl. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 145 Þer scal beon..hele wið-uten unhele. a 1300 Cursor M. 23465 Hele [Edin. hel] wit-vten seke or sare. c 1400 tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. (E.E.T.S.) 66 Kepyng of hele ys mor bettir and mor precious þan any medicyne. 1431 E.E. Wills (1882) 87 Beyng yn goode heale and yn my full wittes. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 351 To preserue your lord in heele [rime euery deele]. 1508 Dunbar Poems iv. 1, I that in heill wes and glaidnes, Am trublit now with gret seiknes. a 1553 Udall Royster D. iii. iii. (Arb.) 46 He was your right good maister while he was in heale. 1606 Warner Alb. Eng. xvi. ciii. 405 That thou beest, Pegge, in better heale than I my selfe am now I wish. 1721 Ramsay Answ. Burchet's Epist. 31 I'll wish ye weel, And aft in sparkling claret drink your heal. 1795 Burns To Mr. Mitchell v, My heal and weal I'll tak a care o't. |
b. Recovery from sickness, healing, cure. (In quots. 1470–85, 1687, A cure, remedy.)
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 29 Ane wunde..oðer hwile hit is on wane of his hele. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 16/514 Heore hele huy hadden riȝt þere. c 1340 Cursor M. 19754 Crist ȝyue þe hele of þi wo. 1470–85 Malory Arthur xvii. xi, And she myght haue a dysshe ful of blood of a mayde..that blood shold be her hele. 1687 P. Madan Tunbridge Waters in Harl. Misc. (1808) I. 586 A common heal, A free-cost health. |
2. Well-being, welfare, safety; prosperity.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. v. 47 Gif ᵹie hælo beadas broðero. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 16 Þat wele þat wont watz..heuen my happe & al my hele. c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 359 Arueragus with heele and greet honour..Is comen hoom. 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. v, Where thrugh thin honor worship & thin hele Was lost. 1522 Skelton Why nat to Court 768 To cause the commune weale Longe to endure in heale. a 1605 Montgomerie Sonn. lviii. 14 Revenge, revert, revive, revest, reveall, My hurt, my hairt, my hope, my hap, my heall. |
b. good heal, welfare, fortune; whence ME. (to) godere hele, to good fortune, to welfare; fortunately.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 57 Godere hele þu hit scalt iseon. c 1205 Lay. 3597 Ȝef þu heo þus dalest, to godere þire hæle. 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 368 Þat goder hele al Engelond was heo euere ybore. |
c. evil heal: disaster, harm. (to) evil hele, wrother heal, unfortunately, disastrously. Cf. hail n.2 2, hale n.1 b.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 33 Hwet seið þe dusie? to ufele hele wes ic iboren. c 1205 Lay. 490 To wroþer heore hele habbeð heo such werc idon. a 1330 Otuel 211 Sarazin, nere thou messager Wrother hele come thou her. c 1340 Cursor M. 6583 (Trin.) Ful euelhele brake ȝe þe day. |
3. Spiritual health, well-being, or healing; salvation. Cf. soul-heal.
| 901–9 Charter of Eadweard in Kemble Cod. Dipl. V. 163 Ic ðær mynster on ᵹestaðolode for mine saule hælo. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke xix. 9 To-dæᵹ þisse hiw-ræddene ys hæl ᵹeworden. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 41 He..bihat us to mede eche hele. a 1225 Ancr. R. 430 To alle uolkes heale. a 1300 Cursor M. 11341 Do me to rest nu seruand þin, for nu min ei has sen þin hel. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) x. 39 Godd..has wroȝt hele in myddes of þe erthe. 1578 Ps. lxvii. in Scot. Poems 16th C. II. 128 Thy sauing heill and righteousnes. |
▪ II. heal, v.1
(hiːl)
Forms: 1 hǽlan, 2–3 hælen, 2–6 hele(n, 3 (helien), healen, 4 haile, 4–5 heel(e, (Sc. heile, heyle, hel), (5 ȝele), 6–7 heale, (Sc. heil(l), 7– heal.
[A Com. Teut. vb.: OE. hǽlan = OFris. hêla, OS. hêlian (MDu. hêlen, heilen, Du. heelen, LG. helen), OHG. heilan (Ger. heilen), ON. heil (Sw. hela, Da. hele), Goth. hailjan, deriv. of hail-s, OTeut. *hailo-z, OS. hál, hale, whole.]
1. trans. To make whole or sound in bodily condition; to free from disease or ailment, restore to health or soundness; to cure (of a disease or wound).
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. x. 8 Hælað untrume. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 91 Heo weren iheled from alle untrumnesse. a 1300 Cursor M. 13261 He..heild mani þat war seke. c 1325 Metr. Hom. 130 The prophet Helesius Of leper heled an hethen man. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Petrus 117 He heilys sek men And quyknyse dede. 1382 Wyclif Luke iv. 23 Leeche, heele thi silf. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) vi. 69 The drye tree..heleþ him of the fallynge euyll. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 1066 How aungel Raphael helyd his kne. 1607 Shakes. Timon ii. i. 24, I..must not breake my backe, to heale his finger. 1842 Tennyson Morte d'Arthur 264 Where I will heal me of my grievous wound. 1846 Trench Mirac. Introd. (1862) 20 Christ, healing a sick man with his word. |
b. absol. To perform or effect a cure.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xii. 10 Ys hyt alyfed to hælenne [c 1160 Hatton G. to hælen] on reste-daᵹum? c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 342 Wið eaᵹena dymnysse ᵹenim foxes geallan..hyt hæleþ. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Symon & Judas 32 Of fewire and parlesy, Vith word þu heilis. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xi. 124 Þe Oyle..heleþ of many sykenesses. c 1450 tr. De Imitatione iii. lv. 132 Þe heuenly leche of soules, þat smytist & helist. 1611 Bible Deut. xxxii. 39, I wound, and I heale. 1732 Pope Ep. Bathurst 234 As Poison heals, in just proportion us'd. 1827 Keble Chr. Y. Visit. Sick iii, As if one prayer could heal. |
c. spec. To touch for the ‘king's evil’.
| 1503–4 in Pegge Curialia Misc. (1816) 127 For heling 3 seke folks 20. 0..for heling 2 seke folks 13. 4. 1661 Pepys Diary 13 Apr., I went to the Banquet-house, and there saw the King heale. |
2. To cure (a disease); to restore to soundness (a wound); also to heal up, over. Also absol.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. x. 1 Ðæt hiᵹ..hældun [c 1160 Hatton G. helden] adle, and ælce untrumnysse. c 1205 Lay. 23072 For heo sculde mid haleweie helen [c 1275 heale] his wunden. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vi. xxi. (1495) 209 To kepe helthe and to heele sykenesse. c 1450 Golagros & Gaw. 882 Thai hynt of his harnese, to helyn his wound. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. v. 42 O foolish physick..That heales up one, and makes another wound! 1676 Wiseman Surg. (J.), A fontanel had been made in the same leg, which he was forced to heal up. 1781 Cowper Expostulation 153 They saw distemper healed, and life restored. 1863 G. J. Whyte-Melville Gladiators ix. (1864) 62 Mere scratches, skin deep, and healed over now. |
3. fig. To restore (a person, etc.) from some evil condition or affection (as sin, grief, disrepair, unwholesomeness, danger, destruction); to save, purify, cleanse, repair, mend.
| c 825 Vesp. Psalter cxlvii. 3 Se haeleð ᵹeðreste on heortan. c 1000 Ags. Ps. (Spl.) xliii. 4 [xliv. 3] (Bosw.) Earm heora ne hælþ hiᵹ. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 95 He ne com na to demane moncun..ac to helenne. c 1205 Lay. 15871 Ȝif ich þi wærc [a ruined wall] hæle. 1382 Wyclif 2 Chron. vii. 14, I schal..ben mercyable to the synnes of hem, and helyn their lond. 1535 Coverdale 2 Kings ii. 22 So the water was healed. 1650 Jer. Taylor Holy Living (1834) 190 Let it alone, and the thing will heal itself. 1719 De Foe Crusoe ii. xii, Our ship was..healed of all her leaks. 1847 Tennyson Princ. iii. 49 Heal me with your pardon. |
b. To cure, repair, amend (any evil condition compared to a disease or wound).
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 173 Elch sinne..bute hit be here forgieue oðer mid bote iheled. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 1724 Þe gastly woundes of syn Thurgh penaunce may be heled. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) G b, Sacramentes of the chirche: the whiche cureth, releueth & heleth all defautes. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. v. 117 Faster then his tongue Did make offence, his eye did heale it vp. 1720 Ozell Vertot's Rom. Rep. II. xiv. 348 Octavia, Antony's Wife and Cæsar's Sister..at various Times, heal'd up their Breaches. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 135 Something might have been done to heal the lacerated feelings..of the Irish gentry. 1887 Trevelyan in Times 7 Mar. 10/6 The breach in our ranks might be healed tomorrow. |
4. intr. (for refl.) To become whole or sound; to recover from sickness or a wound; to get well. (Said of the person, of the part affected, or of a wound or sore.)
| a 1375 Joseph Arim. 681 Þe arm helede a-ȝeyn hol to þe stompe. a 1400–50 Alexander 2817, I sall hele all in hast. 1530 Palsgr. 595/1 Whan thy wounde begynneth to heale, it wyll ytche. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. iii. 229 Those wounds heale ill, that men doe giue themselues. 1803 Med. Jrnl. IX. 432 He suffered the issues to heal. 1888 Gardening 11 Feb. 685/1 The incisions in the crowns soon heal over. |
▪ III. heal, v.2
to cover: see hele v.2
▪ IV. heal(e
dial. forms of hale a.