grail

noun — 5 senses

grail

noun

/ɡɹeɪl/

Etymology From Middle English graal, greal, from Old French graal, greal (“cup”), from Medieval Latin gradalis, possibly corrupted over time from Latin crater (“bowl”).

1

The Holy Grail.

  • The quest for the Grail is not archeology. It's a race against evil. If it is captured by the Nazis, the armies of darkness will march all over the face of the earth. Do you understand me?1989, 1:06:54 from the start, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade^(https://archive.org/details/movie-hollywood-720p-sub-indonesia_202209/Indiana+Jones+and+the+Last+Crusade+(1989)+BR/Indiana+Jones+and+the+Last+Crusade.mp4) (Action-Adventure), spoken by Henry Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery), →OCLC:
2

Something eagerly sought or quested for.

  • Becoming an astronaut was his grail.
  • How many of them had found the item they dreamt of, their personal grails?2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 214:
Derived terms
engrail
Related terms
Sangrail

grail

noun

Etymology From Middle English grayel, from Old French grael, ultimately from Latin graduale. Doublet of gradual.

1

A book of offices in the Roman Catholic Church; a gradual.

  • antiphonals, missals, grails, processionals, etc.1694, John Strype, the Memorials of Thomas Cranmer:

grail

noun

Etymology Uncertain; perhaps a reduced form of gravel.

1

Poetic Small particles of earth; gravel.

  • Hereof this gentle knight vnweeting was, / And lying downe vpon the sandie graile, / Drunke of the streame, as cleare as cristall glas [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

grail

noun

Etymology Compare Old French graite slender.

1

One of the small feathers of a hawk.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.