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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

grail en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ɡɹeɪl/

Etymology

From Middle English graal, greal, from Old French graal, greal (“cup”), from Medieval Latin gradalis, possibly corrupted over time from Latin crater (“bowl”).

Meanings

  1. The Holy Grail.
    • The quest for the Grail is not archeology. It's a race against evil. If it is captured by the Nazis, the armies of darkness will march all over the face of the earth. Do you understand me? 1989, 1:06:54 from the start, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade^(https://archive.org/details/movie-hollywood-720p-sub-indonesia_202209/Indiana+Jones+and+the+Last+Crusade+(1989)+BR/Indiana+Jones+and+the+Last+Crusade.mp4) (Action-Adventure), spoken by Henry Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery), →OCLC:
  2. Something eagerly sought or quested for.
    • Becoming an astronaut was his grail.
    • How many of them had found the item they dreamt of, their personal grails? 2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 214:

Forms

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grails Number=Plur lexicographic

Deriveds

engrail

Relateds

Sangrail

grail en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ɡɹeɪl/

Etymology

From Middle English grayel, from Old French grael, ultimately from Latin graduale. Doublet of gradual.

Meanings

  1. A book of offices in the Roman Catholic Church; a gradual.
    • antiphonals, missals, grails, processionals, etc. 1694, John Strype, the Memorials of Thomas Cranmer:

Forms

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grails Number=Plur lexicographic

grail en · NOUN · etymology 3

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ɡɹeɪl/

Etymology

Uncertain; perhaps a reduced form of gravel.

Meanings

  1. (poetic, uncountable) Small particles of earth; gravel.
    • Hereof this gentle knight vnweeting was, / And lying downe vpon the sandie graile, / Drunke of the streame, as cleare as cristall glas [...]. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

grail en · NOUN · etymology 4

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ɡɹeɪl/

Etymology

Compare Old French graite slender.

Meanings

  1. One of the small feathers of a hawk.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
grails Number=Plur lexicographic