Caul
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /kÉ”Ël/
Alternative forms
- call 16th-17th c.
Origin
From Middle French cale.
Full definition of caul
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.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.vii: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 ... - (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.
- 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society (2012), page 182: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.
- 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.
- (culinary) Caul fat.