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Glite Dictionary
kail

kail

1 8.4
A leafy cabbage with coarse curly leaves often used in Scottish cooking
  • noun
  • /keɪl/
  • Archaic
translation icon : kale

Examples

  • Kail said,

    Blog text (24)

  • Posted by: Kail Ceannai at January 18, 2007 6:23 PM.

    Blog text (12)

  • There were crofts there as well, each with a beaten yard and some hens and a kail patch among dug-up anonymous workings, or parcels of rough grass, whin, and low trees.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • In Scotland, people often grow kail in their gardens to use in traditional recipes.

  • For dinner, she prepared a savory soup featuring kail and potatoes.

  • The farmer harvested the kail early in the morning to sell at the market.

Synonyms

kale
vskail
43 2.4

A hardy green vegetable with curly leaves like cabbage

is used especially in Scottish cooking rather than broad general cuisine
borecole
vskail
  • Archaic
9.5

A leafy vegetable like cabbage with tough curly leaves

has coarser curly leaves rather than notably tougher leaf texture
colewort
vskail
  • Archaic
9.9

A type of cabbage grown as a vegetable with rough curly leaves that do not form a tight head

is used specifically in Scottish cooking instead of mainly grown for harvest
Brassica oleracea acephala
vskail
  • Specialized
7.0

A hardy leafy vegetable like kale with thick curly leaves that do not form a head

is the everyday cooking name used in Scottish cuisine rather than a technical term
collards
vskail
  • US
4.5

A leafy green vegetable with large smooth leaves often cooked

has coarse curly leaves rather than large smooth leaf surfaces

Surface Forms

kail singular
kails plural

Etymology

Kail is the Scottish name for kale, a type of cabbage with coarse, curly leaves. It comes from an old word meaning 'cabbage' or 'stem', so think of the leafy stems that grow in cool gardens — that's why kail means this vegetable.