hail

Icy marbles from the sky! The powerful updraughts inside Cumulonimbus clouds can coat dust particles with hundreds of layers of ice, which eventually become too heavy to be supported by even 200mph winds, and fall from the sky damaging your vw beetle.

Hail is basically rain which has been thrown up and down in a strong storm, freezing in the higher portions of the storm, dropping lower to get coated in more rain, then being thrown higher to freeze again. Hail is generally small - often around the size of a pea - but hail has been recorded as big as footballs. Large hail is common in the Great Plains of the US, where it can cause millions of dollars of crop and property damage. Hail is not to be confused with sleet, or ice pellets, which are basically frozen raindrops. Hail is charactarized by its association with strong thunderstorms and is common on hot summer days - it does not need to be cold to hail. Most areas see occasional hail, I've seen enough hail to color the ground white here in California a few times.

Hail (?), n. [OE. hail, hael, AS. haegel; akin to D., G., Dan., & Sw. hagel; Icel. hagl; cf. Gr. pebble.]

Small roundish masses of ice precipitated from the clouds, where they are formed by the congelation of vapor. The separate masses or grains are called hailstones.

Thunder mixed with hail, Hail mixed with fire, must rend the Egyptian sky. Milton.

© Webster 1913.

Hail, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Halled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Halting.] [OE. hailen, AS. haqalian.]

To pour down particles of ice, or frozen vapors.

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Hail, v. t.

To pour forcibly down, as hail.

Shak.

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Hail, a.

Healthy. See Hale (the preferable spelling).

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Hail, v. t. [OE. hailen, heilen, Icel. heil hale, sound, used in greeting. See Hale sound.]

1.

To call loudly to, or after; to accost; to salute; to address.

2.

To name; to designate; to call.

And such a son as all men hailed me happy. Milton.

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Hail, v. i.

1.

To declare, by hailing, the port from which a vessel sails or where she is registered; hence, to sail; to come; -- used with from; as, the steamer hails from New York.

2.

To report as one's home or the place from whence one comes; to come; -- with from.

G. G. Halpine.

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Hail, interj. [See Hail, v. t.]

An exclamation of respectful or reverent salutation, or, occasionally, of familiar greeting.

Shak.

All hail. See in the Vocabulary. -- Hail Mary, a form of prayer made use of in the Roman Catholic Church in invocation of the Virgin. See Ave Maria.

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Hail, n.

A wish of health; a salutation; a loud call.

M. Arnold.

The angel hail bestowed. Milton.

© Webster 1913.