Pale, n. [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.
English pale(Hist.), the limits or territory within which alone the English conquerors of Ireland held dominion for a long period after their invasion of the country in 1172. Spencer.