Dwale

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dweɪl/
• Rhymes: -eɪl

Origin

From Middle English dwale ("dazed, stupor; deception, trickery; delusion; error, wrong-doing, evil"), from Old English dwala,

dwola ("error, heresy; doubt; madman, deceiver, heretic") and possibly of Scandinavian origin, compare Danish dvale ‘sleep, stupor’.

Full definition of dwale

Noun

1. (obsolete) a sleeping-potion, especially one made from belladonna
• Late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Reeve's TaleTo bedde goþ Aleyne and also John;
  Þer nas na moore – hem nedede no dwale.
2. belladonna itself, deadly nightshade; or some other soporific plant
• 1842, J. van Voorst, The Phytologist, p. 595.Beneath and around the clumps of ragged moss-grown elder and hoary stunted whitethorn (...) rise thickets of tall nettles and rank hemlock, concealing the deadly but alluring dwale —
3. error, delusion
4. (heraldry) a sable or black color.

Verb

1. To mutter deliriously

Related terms

• dwaal — a dreamy, dazed, or absent-minded state
• dwual — to be delirious

Anagrams

• waled
• weald, Weald