Wale n.
1. A streak or mark made on the skin by a rod or whip; a stripe; a wheal. See Wheal.
Syn: -- welt; weal; wheal.
2. A ridge or streak rising above the surface, as of cloth; hence, the texture of cloth.
Thou 'rt rougher far,
And of a coarser wale, fuller of pride. --Beau. & Fl.
3. Carp. A timber bolted to a row of piles to secure them together and in position.
4. Naut. (a) pl. Certain sets or strakes of the outside planking of a vessel; as, the main wales, or the strakes of planking under the port sills of the gun deck; channel wales, or those along the spar deck, etc. (b) A wale knot, or wall knot.
Wale knot. Naut. See Wall knot, under 1st Wall.
Wall n. Naut. A kind of knot often used at the end of a rope; a wall knot; a wale.
Wall knot, a knot made by unlaying the strands of a rope, and making a bight with the first strand, then passing the second over the end of the first, and the third over the end of the second and through the bight of the first; a wale knot. Wall knots may be single or double, crowned or double-crowned.