hail: Meaning and Definition of

hail

Pronunciation: (hāl), [key]
— v.t.
  1. to cheer, salute, or greet; welcome.
  2. to acclaim; approve enthusiastically: The crowds hailed the conquerors. They hailed the recent advances in medicine.
  3. to call out to in order to stop, attract attention, ask aid, etc.: to hail a cab.
—v.i.
  1. to call out in order to greet, attract attention, etc.: The people on land hailed as we passed in the night.
  2. to have as one's place of birth or residence: Nearly everyone here hails from the Midwest.
—n.
  1. a shout or call to attract attention: They answered the hail of the marooned boaters.
  2. a salutation or greeting: a cheerful hail.
  3. the act of hailing.
  4. within range of hearing; audible: The mother kept her children within hail of her voice.
—interj.
  1. (used as a salutation, greeting, or acclamation.)

hail

Pronunciation: (hāl), [key]
— n.
  1. showery precipitation in the form of irregular pellets or balls of ice more than in. (5 mm) in diameter, falling from a cumulonimbus cloud (distinguished from sleet).
  2. a shower or storm of such precipitation.
  3. a shower of anything: a hail of bullets.
—v.i.
  1. to pour down hail (often used impersonally with it as subject): It hailed this afternoon.
  2. to fall or shower as hail: Arrows hailed down on the troops as they advanced.
—v.t.
  1. to pour down on as or like hail: The plane hailed leaflets on the city.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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