grail
See also: GRAIL
English edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle English graal, greal, from Old French graal, greal (“cup”), from Medieval Latin gradalis, possibly corrupted over time from Latin crater (“bowl”).
Noun edit
grail (plural grails)
- The Holy Grail.
- 1989, 1:06:54 from the start, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade[1] (Action-Adventure), spoken by Henry Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery), →OCLC:
- The quest for the Grail is not archeology. It's a race against evil. If it is captured by the Nazis, the armies of darkness will march all over the face of the earth. Do you understand me?
- Something eagerly sought or quested for.
- Becoming an astronaut was his grail.
- 2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 214:
- How many of them had found the item they dreamt of, their personal grails?
Related terms edit
Etymology 2 edit
From Middle English grayel, from Old French grael, ultimately from Latin graduale. Doublet of gradual.
Noun edit
grail (plural grails)
- A book of offices in the Roman Catholic Church; a gradual.
- 1694, John Strype, the Memorials of Thomas Cranmer:
- antiphonals, missals, grails, processionals, etc.
Etymology 3 edit
Uncertain; perhaps a reduced form of gravel.
Noun edit
grail (uncountable)
- (poetic) Small particles of earth; gravel.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Hereof this gentle knight vnweeting was, / And lying downe vpon the sandie graile, / Drunke of the streame, as cleare as cristall glas [...].
Etymology 4 edit
Compare Old French graite slender.
Noun edit
grail (plural grails)