Engrail
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To make rough. transitive
- 2 To variegate or spot, as with hail. transitive
"a caldron new engrailed with twenty hues"
- 3 To form an edging or border; to run in curved or indented lines. intransitive
"Fine gold engrail'd adorns the figur'd floor"
- 4 To indent with small curves. archaic, transitive
"He crossed through the high grass and went up the slope, climbing with handholds in the new turf until he gained the crest and turned to look down on the river and the city beyond, casting a gray glance along that varied world, the pieced plowland, the houses, the odd grady of the small metropolis against the green and blooming hills and the flat bow of the river like a serpentine trench poured with dull slag save where the wind engrailed its face and it shimmered lightly in the sun."
Example
More examples"Fine gold engrail'd adorns the figur'd floor"
Etymology
From en- + grail.
French engrêler
More for "engrail"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.