pales

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of pale.

   He pales at the sight of a needle.

   Every other concern pales next to her recovery.

   Note

   The -s form covers every verb sense of pale, and they pull in different directions. Used without an object, a face pales as it loses color, or a worry pales, shrinking to insignificance beside something larger. Used with one, a light pales another by dimming it. A rarer use means to fence in with stakes, which is why the same spelling also serves as the plural of the stake noun.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of pale.

   Rows of pointed pales surrounded the medieval enclosure.

   The carpenter spaced the pales evenly along the boundary.

   Note

   A plural most at home where pale names something you can count: the wooden stakes of a fence, or, in heraldry, the vertical bands running down the middle of a shield. The broader sense of limits or bounds, and the old name for the English-held part of Ireland, belong to the singular. The idiom beyond the pale grows from the stake sense and describes whatever lies outside the fence.

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