PEAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does peal mean? 

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

1. a deep prolonged sound (as of thunder or large bells)

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

• PEAL (verb)
  The verb PEAL has 2 senses:

1. ring recurrently

2. sound loudly and sonorously

  Familiarity information: PEAL used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PEAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A deep prolonged sound (as of thunder or large bells)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

peal; pealing; roll; rolling

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

sound (the sudden occurrence of an audible event)

Derivation:

peal (sound loudly and sonorously)

peal (ring recurrently)

• PEAL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they peal    ... he / she / it peals   
Past simple: pealed   
Past participle: pealed   
-ing form: pealing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Ring recurrently

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Context example:

bells were pealing

Hypernyms (to "peal" is one way to...):

peal; ring (sound loudly and sonorously)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

peal; pealing (a deep prolonged sound (as of thunder or large bells))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Sound loudly and sonorously

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

peal; ring

Context example:

the bells rang

Hypernyms (to "peal" is one way to...):

go; sound (make a certain noise or sound)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "peal"):

ding; dingdong; dong (go 'ding dong', like a bell)

tintinnabulate (ring or sound like a small bell)

peal (ring recurrently)

knell (ring as in announcing death)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

peal; pealing (a deep prolonged sound (as of thunder or large bells))

 Context examples 

I could not help joining, and we laughed together, peal after peal, until the tavern rang again.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

A peal of laughter from Jo, Amy, Mrs. March, Hannah, and John caused him to open them the next minute, to find himself invested with two babies instead of one.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He swaggered up a path as if the place belonged to him, and we heard his loud, confident peal at the bell.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was a nervous suspense over us all, as though overhead some dread bell would peal out powerfully when we should least expect it.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Sophy tripped away, and we heard her received in the adjoining room with a peal of laughter.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Here was the secret of her blanched face, her shaken nerves, her peals of hysterical laughter on the next morning.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So urgent was Sir Nigel on the shore, and so prompt was Goodwin Hawtayne on the cog, that Sir Oliver Buttesthorn had scarce swallowed his last scallop ere the peal of the trumpet and clang of nakir announced that all was ready and the anchor drawn.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When thus alone, I not unfrequently heard Grace Poole's laugh: the same peal, the same low, slow ha! ha! which, when first heard, had thrilled me: I heard, too, her eccentric murmurs; stranger than her laugh.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Peals of thunder so loud as to seem to shake the edifice to its foundation will roll round the neighbouring mountains—and during the frightful gusts of wind which accompany it, you will probably think you discern (for your lamp is not extinguished) one part of the hanging more violently agitated than the rest.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

A very merry lunch it was, for everything seemed fresh and funny, and frequent peals of laughter startled a venerable horse who fed near by.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)