heal

• IPA^(key): /hiːl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːl
• Homophones: heel, he'll, hill (in some accents)

From Middle English helen, from Old English hǣlan (“to heal, cure, save, greet, salute”), from Proto-West Germanic *hailijan, from Proto-Germanic *hailijaną (“to heal, make whole, save”), from Proto-Indo-European *koyl- (“safe, unharmed”). Derived from the adjective at hand in whole.

heal (third-person singular simple present heals, present participle healing, simple past and past participle healed)

1. (transitive) To make better from a disease, wound, etc.; to revive or cure.

   This bandage will help to heal your cut.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 8:8:

     Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

2. (intransitive) To become better or healthy again.

   Bandages allow cuts to heal.

3. (transitive, figurative) To reconcile, as a breach or difference; to make whole; to free from guilt.

   to heal dissensions

   • 1945, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations, Global Alphabet: Hearing Before the Committee..., page 69:

     English spelling, although unphonetic and antiphonetic, was inherited from our ancestors and has served magnificently in the glorious past. The weak spot in English spelling, however, can be easily healed with the global alphabet.

• (make better): cure, make whole
• (become better): get better, recover

heal (countable and uncountable, plural heals)

1. (roleplaying games, countable) A spell or ability that restores hit points or removes a status ailment.
   • 2004, Computer Gaming World, volumes 234-237, page 81:

     Also, various interesting spells have been added—for instance, with the Orb spell, you can circle a character, firing offensive bolts or casting heals, and free up a mage-type to cast other spells or even melee.

   • 2009, Paul Emmerich, Beginning Lua with World of Warcraft Add-ons, page 351:

     The following macro checks whether our current target is friendly and casts a heal on it if so; otherwise it casts the heal on the target's target […]

   • 2012, Constance Steinkuehler, Kurt Squire, Sasha Barab, Games, Learning, and Society:

     Synner, a priest walking by, sees her struggling and casts a heal on her.

2. (obsolete, uncountable) health

See hele.

heal (third-person singular simple present heals, present participle healing, simple past and past participle healed)

1. (rare) Alternative form of hele (“conceal”).
   • 1907, John. H. Brownell, Arthur Maurice Smith, Joseph E. Morcombe, The American Tyler-Keystone: Devoted to Freemasonry, page 6:

     "Heal, conceal and keep secret."

   • 1998, Clive Richardson, The Horse Breakers, page 212:

     'I swear before God and all these witnesses that I will always heal, conceal and never reveal any art or part of this secret of horsemanry which is to be revealed to me at this time or any other time hereafter.'

   • 2015, Lee Morgan, The Bones Would Do: Book Two of the Christopher Penrose Novels:

     The man in black asked Christopher for the secret passwords he'd been given and he answered correctly. As soon as he had, Christopher felt the point of a blade at his throat. “Do you swear to heal, conceal and never reveal the secrets of the witching arts for all your days […] ?"

• Aleh, Hale, Hela, Leah, hale

heal

1. adessive singular of hea

From Old English hǣlth, from or related to Proto-West Germanic *hail.

heal (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) health

• “heal” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

From Old Frisian half, from Proto-West Germanic *halb, from Proto-Germanic *halbaz.

• IPA^(key): /hɪə̯l/

heal

1. half

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

• “heal”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

heal

1. Alternative form of heale
   • 1867, “VERSES IN ANSWER TO THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 3, page 100:

     Heal, griue, an kin, apaa thee, graacuse Forth,

     Health, wealth, and regard upon thee, gracious Forth,

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 45