▪ I. † shail, n.1 Obs. rare.
Also shayle.
[Cf. shewel.]
A scarecrow.
| 1531 Elyot Gov. i. xxiii, The good husbande..setteth up cloughtes or thredes, whiche some call shailes [1557 shayles],..to feare away birdes. |
▪ II. shail, n.2 dial. rare.
In 6 shayle.
[f. shail v.2]
A crooked gait; a shuffling, awkward manner of walking. First in a-shayle adv., moving or walking in a shuffling, awkward manner.
| 1530 Palsgr. 831/1 A shayle with the knees togyther, and the fete outwarde, a eschays. 1887 Hardy Woodlanders I. xi. 202 Fancy..her bounding walk becoming the regular Hintock shail-and-wamble. |
▪ III. † shail, v.1 Obs. rare—1.
[An alteration of skail v. (perh. a scribal error; the MS. elsewhere has skail.)]
intr. = skail v. 9.
| c 1375 Cursor M. 18836 (Fairf.), His hare..bi his eres shailande sumdele [a 1300 Cott. skailand]. |
▪ IV. shail, v.2 Obs. exc. dial.
(ʃeɪl)
Forms: 4–5 schayle, 5 scheyle, (6 shoyle, scayle), 6, 9 shayl, 6–7, 9 shale, (7 ? shael), 7– shail.
[Possibly a metathetic derivative of OE. sceolh oblique.]
1. intr. To stumble, to walk or move in a shuffling, shambling manner.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 1098 Schovelle-fotede was þat schalke, and schaylande hyme semyde, With schankez unschaply, schowande to-gedyrs. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 443/1 Schaylyn, or scheylyn. (Disgredior.) 1483 Cath. Angl. 332/1 To Schayle (v.r. Schaylle), degradi & degredi. a 1529 Skelton Sp. Parrot 85 Our Thomasen she doth trip, our Ienet she doth shayle. 1530 Palsgr. 700/1, I shayle with the fete, jentretaille des piedz. I never sawe man have a worse pace, se how he shaylleth. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. ii. (1567) 17 The Waine for want of weight..Did hoyse aloft and scayle and reele, as though it empty were. 1575 Turberv. Venerie lv. 155 They [wild swine] set not their hinderfoote within their forefoote, and their gards fall straight vpon the ground and neuer shoyle or leane outwards. 1593 Passionate Morrice (1876) 82 Other, which were well legde, shaled with their feete, or were splafooted. 1692 R. L'Estrange Fables ccxxi. 193 Child [a young crab], (says the Mother) You must Use your self to Walk Streight, without Skewing, and Shailing so Every step you set. 1887 Hardy Woodlanders I. xi. 202 She may shail; but she'll never wamble. |
b. fig. To blunder, be wrong.
| a 1529 Skelton ‘Womanhood, wanton’ 19 Good mastres Anne, there ye do shayle. ― Col. Cloute 401 What, Colyne, there thou shales! ― Replyc. 172 Ye shayle inter enigmata And inter paradigmata. |
2. ? To blink. rare—1. (See shailing vbl. n.)
3. dial. a. intr. To glide or move in a slanting direction. b. trans. To throw (a flat missile) with a gliding motion. [Possibly a distinct word.]
| a. 1895 A. Patterson Man & Nat. on Broads 78 High over-head some great grey gulls are ‘shayling’ in erratic flight, making seaward. |
| b. 1832 tr. Tour Germ. Prince III. v. 127 It is also no rarity for some one to throw the fragments of his ‘gouté’..on the heads of the people in the pit, or to shail them with singular dexterity into the boxes. 1840 Spurdens Suppl. Forby, Shail, to throw a flat missile, as a tile or an oyster shell. |
Hence ˈshailing vbl. n. and ppl. a. Also ˈshailer, one who shambles in his gait.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. xii. (Tollemache MS.), Þe scrabbe is schaylynge beste [1495 a sheylynge, 1535 shelynge, 1582 shelling beest] and gooþ bakwarde. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 443/1 Schaylare. Ibid., Schaylynge (or scheylynge, loripedacio). c 1460 Ibid. (Winch. MS.) 395 Schey, or skey, or horsys or schyttyl scheylere, idem quod schaylare, supra. 1530 Palsgr. 266/1 Schayler that gothe a wrie with his fete, boytevx. 1611 Cotgr., Fauquet,..a shaling wry-legd fellow. 1653 Bulwer Anthropomet. vi. 106 The word..was Hippos, which signifies a perpetuall shaeling of the Eyes. 1658 W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. verse 14. vi. ii. 237 This is too narrow a path, for many shaleing professours to walk in now adays. |