Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One of a row of upright pointed sticks forming a fence; a pale.
  • noun Pointed sticks used in making fences; pales.
  • noun A fence made of pales or pickets.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Pales or stakes collectively.
  • noun A fence formed by connecting pointed vertical stakes by horizontal rails above and below; a picket fence; hence, in general, that which incloses or fences in; in the plural, pales collectively as forming a fence.
  • noun Stripes on cloth resembling pales.
  • noun The putting of the stripes called pales on cloth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Pales, in general; a fence formed with pales or pickets; a limit; an inclosure.
  • noun obsolete The act of placing pales or stripes on cloth; also, the stripes themselves.
  • noun [Eng.] one of the slabs sawed from the sides of a log to fit it to be sawed into boards.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of pale.
  • noun A pointed stick used to make a fence.
  • noun A fence made of palings.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a fence made of upright pickets

Etymologies

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Examples

  • I sometimes, indeed, receive a male visitor, at the other side of the paling, which is my grille; but to change my way of life is a dream that does not trouble me.

    Wylder's Hand 2003

  • It was surrounded on three sides by a dyke of stones and sod, topped by a gray and uncertain paling.

    Rainbow Valley Lucy Maud 1919

  • Next to your lordly wall, in dignity of enclosure, comes your close-set wooden paling, which is more objectionable, because it commonly means enclosure on a larger scale than people want.

    The Two Paths John Ruskin 1859

  • I sometimes, indeed, receive a male visitor, at the other side of the paling, which is my grille; but to change my way of life is a dream that does not trouble me.

    Wylder's Hand Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 1843

  • Senar ditandai dari yang paling tipis ke yang paling tebal, artinya senar 1 itu adalah senar yang paling tipis alias paling bawah, sedangkan senar 6 adalah senar yang paling tebal alias yang paling atas.

    ReadABlog.com New Blogs and RSS Feeds 2008

  • Enough ..... interest in her is certainly "paling".

    Poll: Was Palin's resignation a smart move? 2009

  • Before it is a little garden with flowers, and a paling which is painted.

    The Daisy 1909

  • Hawkins put up the first "paling" fence that had ever adorned the village; and he did not stop there, but whitewashed it.

    The Gilded Age, Part 1. Mark Twain 1872

  • Hawkins put up the first "paling" fence that had ever adorned the village; and he did not stop there, but whitewashed it.

    The Gilded Age A tale of today Charles Dudley Warner 1864

  • Her weapon is the nasty, snide attack -- on Obama for "paling around with terrorists," on all liberals as un-American, on critics as "limp, impotent members of of the old boys club" who lack "cajones."

    Mark Green: Her Candidacy Is Over -- Palin's "Brainwashing" and "Joe Welch" Moment Mark Green 2011

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  • Used, at least, in the Playstation 2 game Final Fantasy XII to refer to an impenetrable magic shield.

    July 25, 2011