MEANING
1. A cloth laid over a coffin, bier, or tomb.
2. A dense layer of material, such as smoke or dust, that covers or obscures.
3. A figurative shadow of gloom or discouragement over a situation.
Use it for
Covered coffins, mourning colors, grief overshadowing a household.Move naturally between a physical funeral cloth and pervasive sorrow.
Words that belong together
- black pall
- funeral pall
- a pall of smoke
- cast a pall over
On the page
The pall concealed the crack in the coffin lid.
News of the missing child cast a pall over the feast.
A pall of smoke blurred the ruined chapel against the sky.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- pall
Usage notes
Primary category: gothic. Also a covering of smoke or gloom and, figuratively, an oppressive shadow; the separate verb means to lose appeal. Plural palls. Separate verb forms: pall, palls, palled, palling (lose appeal).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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