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Glite Dictionary
to bale out

to bale out

6.1
To scoop water out of a boat and throw it over the side
  • phrasal verb
  • /beɪl aʊt/
translation icon : achicar
  • We had to bale out the dinghy before we could row it safely to shore.

Examples

  • He had to bale out the boat quickly!

  • Please bale out!

  • As the storm worsened, everyone took turns baling out water from the boat.

  • She grabbed a bucket and began to bale out the leaking canoe.

  • During the storm, we had to bale out the boat to keep it afloat.

  • The fishermen worked quickly to bale out any water that had entered their dinghy.

  • As the rain poured in, they took turns to bale out the leaking canoe.

Synonyms

to throw overboard
vsto bale out
  • NSFW
5 4.8

To throw someone or something from a boat into water

removes water from a boat rather than throwing objects into water
to bail out
vsto bale out
3 4.7

Remove water from a boat by scooping it out

is the same act but not necessarily done repeatedly
to lade
vsto bale out
  • Archaic
9.5

To take liquid from a container with a ladle

removes water by scooping and throwing it overboard rather than using a ladle

Antonyms

to flood
176 1.0

To cover a place with water when it overflows

How Much Water

drain
44 1.4
to pump out
23 3.2
to bale out
6.1
to scoop
127 1.9
to splash
91 1.0

Surface Forms

bale out infinitive
baled out past
baled out past participle
baling out present participle
bales out third person singular

Morphology

bale + out

The verb 'bale' in this sense is rare or unrepresented in the learner's provided word list and would not transparently yield 'remove water from a boat' when combined with 'out'; a B1 learner who knows common senses of 'bale' (e.g. a bundle) would not predict this meaning. The expression is also easily confused with the similar-sounding and more common phrase 'bail out', so the actual sense is unpredictable from the constituents and not compositionally clear.

Etymology

The phrasal verb bale out comes from the image of people on a boat using a bucket to bale water and throw it out over the side. That's why it means 'to remove water from a boat'.