wal

n. [ AS. weald. See Wold. ] A forest; -- used as a termination of names. See Weald. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. [ So called from Petrus Waldus, or Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, who founded this sect about a. d. 1170. ] (Eccl. Hist.) A sect of dissenters from the ecclesiastical system of the Roman Catholic Church, who in the 13th century were driven by persecution to the valleys of Piedmont, where the sect survives. They profess substantially Protestant principles. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to the Waldenses. -- n. One Holding the Waldensian doctrines. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Wald, and Margrave. ] In the old German empire, the head forest keeper. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL. ] (Zool.) A genus of brachiopods of which many species are found in the fossil state. A few still exist in the deep sea. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ AS. walu a mark of stripes or blows, probably originally, a rod; akin to Icel. völr, Goth. walus a rod, staff. √146. Cf. Goal, Weal a wale. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A streak or mark made on the skin by a rod or whip; a stripe; a wheal. See Wheal. Holland.
Syn. -- welt; weal; wheal. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A ridge or streak rising above the surface, as of cloth; hence, the texture of cloth. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou 'rt rougher far,
And of a coarser wale, fuller of pride. Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Carp.) A timber bolted to a row of piles to secure them together and in position. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Wale knot. (Naut.) See Wall knot, under 1st Wall. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To mark with wales, or stripes. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To choose; to select; specifically (Mining), to pick out the refuse of (coal) by hand, in order to clean it. [ Prov. Eng. & Scot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Wales, i.e., New South Wales. ] A horse imported from New South Wales; also, any Australian horse. [ Colloq. ] Kipling.

☞ The term originated in India, whither many horses are exported from Australia (mostly from New South Wales), especially for the use of cavalry. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]