wale

A ridge or low barrier.

A raised rib in knitted goods or fabric, especially corduroy.

Most twills are continuous—the wale goes from one corner to the one diagonally opposite. Pattern, however, can be achieved by periodically changing the direction of the wales.

I have woven a small sample of striped corduroy shown here. […] The stripe draws the eye from side to side while the wales draw the eye up and down.

The texture of a piece of fabric.

Crepon cloths, with their heavy crape-like wale, are a noteworthy part of the season's importations.

A horizontal ridge or ledge on the outside planking of a wooden ship. (See gunwale, chainwale)

The strakes between the several ranges of ports, beginning from under the upper-deck ports of a three-decked ship in the royal navy, are called the channel wale, the middle wale, and the main wale.

A horizontal timber used for supporting or retaining earth.

A few feet below the first wale another timber is inserted, likewise secured by struts.

To strike the skin in such a way as to produce a wale or welt.

Would suffer his lazy rider to bestride his patie: back, with his hands and whip to wale his flesh, and with his heels to dig into his hungry bowels?

To beat a person, especially as punishment or out of anger.

When faced with an adulthood that offered few options, grinding poverty and marriage to a man who drank too much and came home to wale on his own family or...no beatings.

To give a surface a texture of wales or welts.

Something selected as being the best, preference; choice; choosing.