shoal

Meanings

Adjective

• Shallow.

Noun

• A sandbank or sandbar creating a shallow.
• A shallow in a body of water.
• Any large number of persons or things.
• A large number of fish (or other sea creatures) of the same species swimming together.

Verb

• To arrive at a shallow (or less deep) area.
• To cause a shallowing; to come to a more shallow part of.
• To become shallow.
• To collect in a shoal; to throng.

Related

Similar words

• sandbar, sandbank
• school

Origin

• From Middle English schold, scholde, from Old English sċeald ("shallow"), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *skalidaz, past participle of *skaljaną, from *skalaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh₁- ("to dry out"). Cognate with Low German Scholl ("shallow water"), German schal ("stale, flat, vapid"). Compare shallow.
• 1570, presumably from Middle English *schole ("school of fish"), from Old English sċeolu, sċolu, from Proto-Germanic *skulō ("crowd"), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH-. Cognate with West Frisian skoal ("shoal"), Middle Low German schōle ("multitude, troop"), Dutch school ("shoal of fishes"). Doublet of school.