haul

Meaning

Verb

1. To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle.
2. To draw or pull something heavy.
3. To carry or transport something, with a connotation that the item is heavy or otherwise difficult to move.
4. To drag, to pull, to tug.
5. Followed by up: to summon to be disciplined or held answerable for something.
6. To pull apart, as oxen sometimes do when yoked.
7. To steer (a vessel) closer to the wind.
8. Of the wind: to shift fore (more towards the bow).
9. (colloquial) To haul ass (“go fast”).

Noun

1. An act of hauling or pulling, particularly with force; a (violent) pull or tug.
2. The distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long.
3. An amount of something that has been taken, especially of fish, illegal loot, or items purchased on a shopping trip.
4. Short for haul video (“video posted on the Internet consisting of someone showing and talking about recently purchased items”).
5. A bundle of many threads to be tarred.
6. Four goals scored by one player in a game.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/hɔːl/

Etymology

From Middle English hālen, hailen, haulen, halien (“to drag, pull; to draw up”), from Old French haler (“to haul, pull”), from Frankish *halōn (“to drag, fetch, haul”) or Middle Dutch halen (“to drag, fetch, haul”), possibly merging with Old English *halian (“to haul, drag”); all from Proto-Germanic *halōną, *halēną, *hulōną (“to call, fetch, summon”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, cry, summon”). The noun is derived from the verb.
Cognates
The word is cognate with Danish hale (“to haul”), Middle Dutch halen (“to draw, fetch, haul”), Dutch halen (“to fetch, bring, haul”), Old Frisian halia, Saterland Frisian halen (“to draw, haul, pull”), Low German halen (“to draw, pull”), Old High German halôn, holôn, German holen (“to fetch, get”), Norwegian hale (“to haul”), Old Saxon halôn (“to fetch, get”), Swedish hala (“to hale, haul, pull, tug”), and related to Old English ġeholian (“to get, obtain”).