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dial
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English
Etymology
The original meaning was 'sundial' and/or 'clock dial'; from Middle English diall, from Middle French dyal, from Latin diālis (“daily, concerning the day”), because of its use in telling the time of day, from Latin diēs (“day”). Compare Spanish dial and día (“day”).
Pronunciation
Noun
dial (plural dials)
- A graduated, circular scale over which a needle moves to show a measurement (such as speed).
- Holonyms: (often holonymous) instrument, gauge
- The dial on the dashboard showed the car was nearly out of gas.
- Such a field as part of a clock face; (metonymic) the entire clock face.
- Comeronyms: hour hand, little hand; minute hand, big hand; second hand
- A sundial.
- A panel on a radio etc showing wavelengths or channels; a knob that is turned to change the wavelength etc.
- Turn the dial to Radio 4: my favourite show is on!
- A disk with finger holes on a telephone; used to select the number to be called.
- His hands were too fat to operate the dial on the telephone.
- (UK, Australia, slang) A person's face. [from 19th c.]
- 1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 90:
- “Well, all I can say is that if yer don't take yer dial outer the road I'll bloomin' well take an' bounce a gibber off yer crust.”
- 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter IX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
- At the sound of the old familiar voice he spun around with something of the agility of a cat on hot bricks, and I saw that his dial, usually cheerful, was contorted with anguish, as if he had swallowed a bad oyster.
- 2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo, published 2012, page 137:
- Old Mona Lisa would have looked like a sour lemon beside Angel Day on the rare days she put a smile on her dial, laughing with her friends when some new man was in town.
- A miner's compass.
Translations
graduated, circular scale over which a needle moves
|
clock face — see clock face
sundial — see sundial
panel on a radio; knob that is turned to change the wavelength
disk with finger holes on a telephone
|
person's face
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Verb
dial (third-person singular simple present dials, present participle (US) dialing or dialling, simple past and past participle (US) dialed or dialled)
- (transitive) To control or select something with a dial, or (figuratively) as if with a dial.
- The president has recently dialled down the rhetoric.
- (transitive) To select a number, or to call someone, on a telephone.
- In an emergency dial 999.
- (intransitive) To use a dial or a telephone.
- Please be careful when dialling.
Usage notes
- The spellings dialing and dialed are more common in the US. Dialling and dialled are more common elsewhere.
Translations
to measure or indicate something with a dial
to select a number, or to call someone, on a telephone
|
Derived terms
derived from noun or verb
- autodial
- butt dial
- compass dial
- dead dial
- dialable
- dial-a-joke
- dial-a-ride
- dial-a-ride problem
- dial-around
- dial-a-yield
- dial back
- dial down
- dial down a notch
- dialer (US)
- dial gauge
- dial in
- dial-in
- dial indicator
- dial into
- dialist
- dial it in
- dialless
- diallist
- dial lock
- dial number
- dial out
- dialpainter
- dial tone
- dial towards
- dial up
- dial-up
- direct-dial
- don't touch that dial
- drunk dial
- mine dial
- miner's dial
- misdial
- moondial
- move the dial
- pocket-dial
- pocket dial
- predial
- radium dial
- redial
- reset the dial
- rotary-dial
- rotary dial
- shadow dial
- shift the dial
- speed-dial
- speed dial
- subdial
- tide dial
- tropical dial
- turn the dial
- undialed
- undialled
- video dial tone
- war-dial
Anagrams
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North Frisian
Etymology 1
From Proto-Germanic *dailą.
Noun
dial n or m (plural dialen) (Föhr-Amrum)
Usage notes
Alternative forms
Etymology 2
From Proto-Germanic *dailijaną. Related with the noun above.
Verb
dial
- (Föhr-Amrum) to divide
Conjugation
Alternative forms
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Spanish
Pronunciation
Noun
dial m (plural diales)
Further reading
- “dial”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024
Welsh
Etymology
From Middle Welsh dial, from Old Welsh digal, from Proto-Brythonic *diɣal, from Proto-Celtic *dī-galā. Cognate with Cornish dial, Breton dial and Old Irish dígal and its modern derivatives.
Pronunciation
Noun
dial m (plural dialau or dialon)
Verb
dial (first-person singular present dialaf)
- to avenge, to get one's own back
- Synonyms: talu'n ôl, talu'r pwyth yn ôl
Usage notes
- This verb is followed by the preposition ar.
Conjugation
Derived terms
- dialedd (“vengence, nemesis”)
- dialgar (“vengeful”)
- dialwr (“avenger”)
- dialydd (“avenger”)
Mutation
Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.
Further reading
- R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “dial”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
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