dale

UK/deɪl/US/deɪl/

nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

Other forms: dales

A dale is a broad open valley. The Yorkshire dales, a green dale, sheep grazing the dale.

It is northern English and suggests wide grazing rather than a narrow cut. A dale is a valley you can farm, where a gorge or a ravine is not.

Definitions of dale

1noundaleA broad open valley.C1
“The dale was walled into fields all the way up.”

dale is a valley.

Old English dael, related to German Tal, as in Neanderthal, the valley of the Neander.

From Middle English dale, from Old English dæl, from Proto-West Germanic dal, from Proto-Germanic dalą.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA