Bald

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /bɔːld/, bɔːɫd
• US IPA: /bÉ”ld/; cot-caught IPA: /bÉ‘ld/
• Rhymes: -ɔːld
• Homophones: balled

Origin

From Middle English balled ("bald"), from ball ("white spot, blaze") ( + -ed), from Old English *bala ("white patch, blaze"), from Proto-Germanic *balô ("flame"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- ("light, bright"). Cognate with Danish bældet ("bald"), Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌻𐌰- (bala-, "shining, grey (of body)"), Old English bǣl ("fire, flame; funeral pyre"). Cognate with Albanian balë ("white spot on the forehead") and ball ("forehead").

Adjective

1. Having no hair, fur or feathers.
• 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen RabbitThe Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces.
1. Having no hair on the head.a bald man with a moustache
2. Of tyres: whose surface is worn away.
3. Of a statement: empirically unsupported.

Antonyms

• (having hair) faxed, haired

Derived terms

Full definition of bald

Noun

1. (Appalachian) A mountain summit or crest that lacks forest growth despite a warm climate conducive to such, as is found in many places in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

Verb

1. (intransitive) to become bald