wale

v. cause a mark on the skin; knit in strips; strengthen with reinforcing planks

n. mark on the body, welt; strip, stripe; protruding stripe on a fabric; reinforcing bar (Construction)

A wale is a broad, thick plank around the outside of a wooden ship. The garboard is the wale next to the keel; the gunwale is the top such plank and covers the heads of the timbers between the main and fore drifts. Gunports on armed ships were placed in the Middle Wales.
See more at Wikipedia.org...

Noun
1. a raised mark on the skin (as produced by the blow of a whip); characteristic of many allergic reactions
(synonym) welt, weal, wheal
(hypernym) injury, hurt, harm, trauma
2. thick plank forming a ridge along the side of a wooden ship
(synonym) strake
(hypernym) board, plank
(hyponym) garboard, garboard plank, garboard strake
(part-holonym) vessel, watercraft

n. whale, very large sea mammal with an air spout on the top of the head

(v. t.)
To mark with wales, or stripes.
  

(v. t.)
To choose; to select; specifically (Mining), to pick out the refuse of (coal) by hand, in order to clean it.
  

(n.)
Certain sets or strakes of the outside planking of a vessel; as, the main wales, or the strakes of planking under the port sills of the gun deck; channel wales, or those along the spar deck, etc.
  

(n.)
A wale knot, or wall knot.
  

(n.)
A timber bolted to a row of piles to secure them together and in position.
  

(n.)
A streak or mark made on the skin by a rod or whip; a stripe; a wheal. See Wheal.
  

(n.)
A ridge or streak rising above the surface, as of cloth; hence, the texture of cloth.