VALE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does vale mean? 

• VALE (noun)
  The noun VALE has 1 sense:

1. a long depression in the surface of the land that usually contains a river

  Familiarity information: VALE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VALE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A long depression in the surface of the land that usually contains a river

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

vale; valley

Hypernyms ("vale" is a kind of...):

depression; natural depression (a sunken or depressed geological formation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vale"):

dale (an open river valley (in a hilly area))

glen (a narrow secluded valley (in the mountains))

gully (deep ditch cut by running water (especially after a prolonged downpour))

holler; hollow (a small valley between mountains)

nullah (a ravine or gully in southern Asia)

ravine (a deep narrow steep-sided valley (especially one formed by running water))

rift valley (a valley with steep sides; formed by a rift in the earth's crust)

Instance hyponyms:

Nemea (a valley in southeastern Greece where the Nemean Games were held)

Loire Valley (the valley of the Loire River where many French wines originated)

San Fernando Valley (a fertile valley in southern California to the north of Los Angeles; includes many residential communities)

San Joaquin Valley (a vast valley in central California known for its rich farmland)

Shenandoah Valley (a large valley between the Allegheny Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Virginia; site of numerous battles during the American Civil War)

 Context examples 

It always happens so in this vale of tears, there is an inevitability about such things which we can only wonder at, deplore, and bear as we best can.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I was almost in consternation, so little had I expected any guest from the blocked-up vale that night.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Sometimes, indeed, I dreamt that I wandered in flowery meadows and pleasant vales with the friends of my youth, but I awoke and found myself in a dungeon.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

This I presently discovered, for, going as soon as I was dressed to pay my attendance upon his honour, he asked me the meaning of what his servant had reported, that I was not the same thing when I slept, as I appeared to be at other times; that his vale assured him, some part of me was white, some yellow, at least not so white, and some brown.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

At this thought, I turned my face aside from the lovely sky of eve and lonely vale of Morton—I say lonely, for in that bend of it visible to me there was no building apparent save the church and the parsonage, half-hid in trees, and, quite at the extremity, the roof of Vale Hall, where the rich Mr. Oliver and his daughter lived.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

During one of their walks a poor cot in the foldings of a vale attracted their notice as being singularly disconsolate, while the number of half-clothed children gathered about it spoke of penury in its worst shape.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

From my seat I could look down on Thornfield: the grey and battlemented hall was the principal object in the vale below me; its woods and dark rookery rose against the west. I lingered till the sun went down amongst the trees, and sank crimson and clear behind them.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I never spoke to it, and it never spoke to me, in words; but I read its eyes, and it read mine; and our speechless colloquy was to this effect—It was a fairy, and come from Elf-land, it said; and its errand was to make me happy: I must go with it out of the common world to a lonely place—such as the moon, for instance—and it nodded its head towards her horn, rising over Hay-hill: it told me of the alabaster cave and silver vale where we might live.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

We had heard no step on that grass-grown track; the water running in the vale was the one lulling sound of the hour and scene; we might well then start when a gay voice, sweet as a silver bell, exclaimed—Good evening, Mr. Rivers.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

They clung to the purple moors behind and around their dwelling—to the hollow vale into which the pebbly bridle-path leading from their gate descended, and which wound between fern-banks first, and then amongst a few of the wildest little pasture-fields that ever bordered a wilderness of heath, or gave sustenance to a flock of grey moorland sheep, with their little mossy- faced lambs:—they clung to this scene, I say, with a perfect enthusiasm of attachment.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)