pale (pāl), adjective [comparative Paler (pāl′ẽr); superlative Palest.] [F. pâle, fr. pâlir to turn pale, L. pallere to be or look pale. Cf. Appall, Fallow, pall, intransitive verb, Pallid.]

1. Wanting in color; not ruddy; dusky white; pallid; wan; as, a pale face; a pale red; a pale blue.

“Pale as a forpined ghost.” Chaucer.

Speechless he stood and pale. Milton.

They are not of complexion red or pale. T. Randolph.

2. Not bright or brilliant; of a faint luster or hue; dim; as, the pale light of the moon. The night, methinks, is but the daylight sick;

It looks a little paler. Shak.

☞ Pale is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, pale-colored, pale-eyed, pale-faced, pale-looking, etc. Pale, noun Paleness; pallor. [R.] Shak.

Pale, intransitive verb [imperfect or past participle Paled (pāld); present participle or verbal noun Paling.]

To turn pale; to lose color or luster. Whittier.

Apt to pale at a trodden worm. Mrs. Browning.

Pale, transitive verb To make pale; to diminish the brightness of. The glowworm shows the matin to be near,

And ’gins to pale his uneffectual fire. Shak.

Pale, noun [F. pal, fr. L. palus: cf. D. paal. See Pole a stake, and 1st Pallet.]

1. A pointed stake or slat, either driven into the ground, or fastened to a rail at the top and bottom, for fencing or inclosing; a picket.

Deer creep through when a pale tumbles down. Mortimer.

2. That which incloses or fences in; a boundary; a limit; a fence; a palisade.

“Within one pale or hedge.” Robynson (More's Utopia).

3. A space or field having bounds or limits; a limited region or place; an inclosure; – often used figuratively.

“To walk the studious cloister's pale.” Milton.

“Out of the pale of civilization.” Macaulay.

4. A stripe or band, as on a garment. Chaucer.

5. (Her.) One of the greater ordinaries, being a broad perpendicular stripe in an escutcheon, equally distant from the two edges, and occupying one third of it.

6. A cheese scoop. Simmonds.

7. (Shipbuilding) A shore for bracing a timber before it is fastened.

Pale, transitive verb To inclose with pales, or as with pales; to encircle; to encompass; to fence off.

[Your isle, which stands] ribbed and paled in
With rocks unscalable and roaring waters. Shak.

-- Websters 1913