english pale

Pale \Pale\, n. [F. pal, fr. L. palus: cf. D. paal. See {Pole} a
   stake, and 1st {Pallet}.]
   1. A pointed stake or slat, either driven into the ground, or
      fastened to a rail at the top and bottom, for fencing or
      inclosing; a picket.
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            Deer creep through when a pale tumbles down.
                                                  --Mortimer.
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   2. That which incloses or fences in; a boundary; a limit; a
      fence; a palisade. "Within one pale or hedge." --Robynson
      (More's Utopia).
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   3. A space or field having bounds or limits; a limited region
      or place; an inclosure; -- often used figuratively. "To
      walk the studious cloister's pale." --Milton. "Out of the
      pale of civilization." --Macaulay.
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   4. Hence: A region within specified bounds, whether or not
      enclosed or demarcated.
      [PJC]

   5. A stripe or band, as on a garment. --Chaucer.
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   6. (Her.) One of the greater ordinaries, being a broad
      perpendicular stripe in an escutcheon, equally distant
      from the two edges, and occupying one third of it.
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   7. A cheese scoop. --Simmonds.
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   8. (Shipbuilding) A shore for bracing a timber before it is
      fastened.
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   {English pale}, {Irish pale} (Hist.), the limits or territory
      in Eastern Ireland within which alone the English
      conquerors of Ireland held dominion for a long period
      after their invasion of the country by Henry II in 1172.
      See note, below.

   {beyond the pale} outside the limits of what is allowed or
      proper; also, outside the limits within which one is
      protected. --Spencer.
      [1913 Webster +PJC]

   Note: The English Pale. That part of Ireland in which English
         law was acknowledged, and within which the dominion of
         the English was restricted, for some centuries after
         the conquests of Henry II. John distributed the part of
         Ireland then subject to England into 12 counties
         palatine, and this region became subsequently known as
         the Pale, but the limits varied at different times.
         [Century Dict., 1906]