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''caul'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''caul'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260227140228-00-⌔

caul - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

caul (plural cauls)

  • (historical) A style of close-fitting circular cap worn by women in the sixteenth century and later, often made of linen. [from 14th c.]
    • ✤ Ne spared they to strip her naked all./Then when they had despoild her tire and call,/Such as she was, their eyes might her behold […]1
  • (UK, historical, often capitalized, used on maps) An entry to a mill lead taken from a burn or stream (a mill lead (or mill waterway) is generally smaller than a canal but moves a large volume of water). [chiefly 1800-1950]
  • (anatomy, obsolete except in specific senses) A membrane. [14th–17th c.]
  • The thin membrane which covers the lower intestines; the omentum. [from 14th c.]
  • The amnion which encloses the foetus before birth, especially that part of it which sometimes shrouds a baby’s head at birth (traditionally considered to be good luck). [from 16th c.]
    • ✤ I was born with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in the newspapers, at the low price of fifteen guineas.2
    • ✤ Even in the mid seventeenth century a country gentleman might regard his caul as a treasure to be preserved with great care, and bequeathed to his descendants.3
  • The surface of a press that makes contact with panel product, especially a removable plate or sheet.
  • (woodworking) A strip or block of wood used to distribute or direct clamping force.
  • (cooking) Caul fat.

Etymology

From Middle English calle, kelle, kalle, kolle (“caul, net, basket”), from Old English cāwl, cāul, cēawl, cēaul (“basket, container, net, sieve”), of uncertain origin. Reinforced by Old French cale (“close-fitting cap”), possibly a borrowing of the Old English term above, or alternatively related to Old French calotte (“headdress”), from Italian callotta, from Latin calautica (“type of female headdress which fell down over the shoulders”), itself of unknown origin. Cognate with Scots kell (“caul”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /kɔːl/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (General American) IPA: /kɔl/
    • (cot–caught merger) IPA: /kɑl/
  • Rhymes: -ɔːl
  • Homophones: call; coll, col (cot–caught merger)

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC: ↩

  2. 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC: ↩

  3. 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 182: ↩

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