Pale

"He's out there…totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct." That's how the U.S. Army describes Marlon Brando's rogue colonel, Kurtz, in the movie Apocalypse Now. In his book The Audacity of Hope, President Obama described certain capital crimes as "beyond the pale"; this year, Paul Ryan has used the same phrase to condemn racist comments by Donald Trump. We may not know what "the pale" is, but boy oh boy can we ever tell when someone, or something, is beyond it. But I've got a surprise for you. You're probably beyond the pale right now—unless you're within a hour's drive of The other Norman Conquest didn't go so well. By the 14th century, the Norman invasion of Ireland was struggling. Too many Normans had "gone native" like Colonel Kurtz and assimilated into Irish life. The remaining settlers had retreated to just four eastern counties: Louth, Meath, Dublin, and Kildare. These four "obedient shires" were the only part of Ireland still under the control of the English crown. The king's perimeter was marked with wooden fence posts pounded into the Irish turf. These were called "pales," from the Latin palus, meaning "stake." A last "ditch" attempt to thwart cattle rustlers. Over the following centuries, the English settlement fortified its boundaries by turning the fenceline into an impressive barrier: a ten-foot-deep ditch surrounded by eight-foot banks on each side and ringed by a thorny hedge. These ramparts were never meant to be an impregnable wall, but the...

To be or seem less important, impressive, or otherwise deficient when compared to someone or something else. The film was enjoyable, but it pales by comparison to the original. Though that issue is indeed serious, it pales by comparison with the threat of drug abuse that is tearing the country apart. To be or seem less important, impressive, or otherwise deficient when compared to someone or something else. The film was enjoyable, but it pales in comparison to the original. Though that issue is indeed serious, it pales in comparison with the threat of drug abuse that is tearing the country apart. To diminish or lessen in significance, importance, impact, or value, especially over time or compared to something else. The horrible tensions and violence that used to grip this city have started to pale into insignificance as we continue this period of peace and prosperity. I've found a bit of success with my work, but it pales into insignificance compared to the works of the writers who inspired me. Outside the bounds of morality, good behavior or judgment; unacceptable. For example, She thought taking the boys to a topless show was beyond the pale. The noun pale, from the Latin palum, meant "a stake for fences" or "a fence made from such stakes." By extension it came to be used for an area confined by a fence and for any boundary, limit, or restriction, both of these meanings dating from the late 1300s. The pale referred to in the idiom is usually taken to mean the English Pal...

Recent Examples on the Web The finest artisans will give their customer a gentle nudge when an idea goes beyond the pale. — Mark Cho, Robb Report, 16 Oct. 2021 Her nomination was imperiled after Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., said her many tweets deriding political opponents were beyond the pale. — Matthew Brown, USA TODAY, 4 Mar. 2021 Throwing out spurious allegations about her residency, however, is beyond the pale. — Gilbert Garcia, ExpressNews.com, 7 Oct. 2020 To Issa, only veterans who receive honorable or general discharges should be protected from deportation, and bad conduct discharges are beyond the pale. — Pablo Manríquez, The New Republic, 14 Dec. 2022 The president’s behavior on Jan. 6 had been utterly beyond the pale, Mr. McConnell said. — New York Times, 21 Apr. 2022 Madison, who has guided more than 70 clients to the summit of Everest, believed that the threat of a lawsuit over a judgment call for safety was beyond the pale. — Frederick Reimers, Outside Online, 30 Dec. 2021 As with social issues, where positions held by Barack Obama now constitute unconscionable bigotry, long-running and bipartisan views about fighting poverty lie suddenly beyond the pale. — Oren Cass, National Review, 5 Mar. 2021 Calls for migrants to be shot and places of worship to be razed would be beyond the pale in most democracies. — Sadanand Dhume, WSJ, 3 Sep. 2020 See More These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'be...

Noun( • A container made of rigid material, often with a handle, used to carry liquids or small items. I need a bucket to carry the water from the well. • * 1922 , ( Virginia Woolf), ( The crab was cool and very light. But the water was thick with sand, and so, scrambling down, Jacob was about to jump, holding his bucket in front of him, when he saw, stretched entirely rigid, side by side, their faces very red, an enormous man and woman. • The amount held in this container. The horse drank a whole bucket of water. • A unit of measure equal to four gallons. • Part of a piece of machinery that resembles a bucket . • (slang) An old car that is not in good working order. • (basketball, informal) The basket. The forward drove to the bucket . • (basketball, informal) A field goal. ''We can't keep giving up easy buckets . • (variation management) A mechanism for avoiding the allocation of targets in cases of mismanagement. • (computing) A storage space in a hash table for every item sharing a particular key. • (informal, chiefly, plural) A large amount of liquid. It rained buckets yesterday. I was so nervous that I sweated buckets . Verb( • To place inside a bucket. • (informal) To rain heavily. • * It’s really bucketing down out there. • (informal) To travel very quickly. • * The boat is bucketing along. • (computing) To categorize (data) by splitting it into buckets, or groups of related items. • * 2002 , Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi, Masayuki Numao, Rüdiger Reischuk, Algorithmic Learni...