Grail

//ɡɹeɪl// name, noun

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Initialism of Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
Noun
  1. 1
    The Holy Grail.

    "The quest for the Grail is not archeology. It's a race against evil. If it is captured by the Nazis, the armies of darkness will march all over the face of the earth. Do you understand me?"

  2. 2
    A book of offices in the Roman Catholic Church; a gradual.

    "antiphonals, missals, grails, processionals, etc."

  3. 3
    Small particles of earth; gravel. poetic, uncountable

    "Hereof this gentle knight vnweeting was, / And lying downe vpon the sandie graile, / Drunke of the streame, as cleare as cristall glas [...]."

  4. 4
    One of the small feathers of a hawk.
  5. 5
    the object of any prolonged endeavor wordnet
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    Something eagerly sought or quested for.

    "Becoming an astronaut was his grail."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English graal, greal, from Old French graal, greal (“cup”), from Medieval Latin gradalis, possibly corrupted over time from Latin crater (“bowl”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English grayel, from Old French grael, ultimately from Latin graduale. Doublet of gradual.

Etymology 3

Uncertain; perhaps a reduced form of gravel.

Etymology 4

Compare Old French graite slender.

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