Etymology

Noun

1. A ridge or low barrier.
2. A raised rib in knit goods or fabric. (As opposed to course)
3. The texture of a piece of fabric.
4. The outside planking of a wooden ship. (See gunwale)
5. A horizontal timber used for supporting or retaining earth.
6. A ridge on the outside of a horse collar.
7. A ridge or streak produced on skin by a cane or whip.

Verb

1. To strike the skin in such a way as to produce a wale.
   • 1832: Owen Felltham, Resolves, Divine, Moral, Political

     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?

   • 2002: Hal Rothman, Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century

     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.