Hails

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /heɪlz/

Definitions

1. To enthusiastically greet or acclaim something or someone, to express formal recognition or admiration for an individual or an event, and to describe the occurrence of small ice pellets falling from the atmosphere
2. To offer a warm greeting or enthusiastic praise to a person or situation, to publicly recognize and commend, and to refer to the precipitation of ice particles during storms
3. Expresses enthusiastic greeting or approval ; comes or originates from a specified place ; shouts to draw attention ; precipitates small balls of ice from the sky

Etymology: "Hails" is the third-person singular present of the verb "hail", meaning to greet someone warmly or to call out to attract attention. The verb comes from the noun "hail", the frozen precipitation, through Middle English "haylen" and Old English "hagolian", a formation that apparently meant something like "to pelt with hail." The sense of greeting seems to have developed from the image of a loud call sent across a distance, the way one calls out to someone from afar. The word has a second, unrelated life. The adjective "hail" meaning "whole, healthy" comes from Old Norse "heill" and is the source of the verb "heal" and of "hale" and "whole." Keeping the two apart is worth the effort, since the frozen-rain sense and the healthy sense seem to have run in parallel and fused only in spelling.

Synonyms: greets, salutes, calls, welcomes, applauds

Antonyms: bids farewell, dismisses, ignores, overlooks, snubs