goyle

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See also: Goyal

English

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Etymology

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Unknown. Found (initially) in the dialects of Somerset and Devon. Possibly related to gulley.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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goyle (plural goyles)

  1. A ravine or other depression.
    • 1895, Oswald Crawfurd, A Year of Sport and Natural History: Shooting, Hunting, Coursing, Falconry and Fishing with Chapters on Birds of Prey, the Nidification of Birds and the Habits of British Wild Birds and Animals, page 16:
      Into a deep goyle they plunge, and then up the far side to where a ploughman has halted his team that he may watch the sport. There the hounds come to a check suddenly.
    • 1921, Littell's Living Age, page 738:
      They likewise passed into the deep goyle, where I could not see them, and then, almost immediately, the chorus ceased, nor for some minutes did I hear another sound.
    • 1922, The National Review:
      Swerving from his course, he went crashing down the slope, like a boulder discharged from the crag above, sprang headlong into the water, and disappeared into a narrow deep goyle through which the river ran.
    • 1939, Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset ...:
      Before the brook flows past Pitminster Church, it passes through a deep goyle. Here it is crossed by a footpath leading from Woodram to the village of Blagdon Hill. The path is carried across the goyle on a wooden bridge.
    • 1958, Roads and Road Construction: A Monthly Record of Road Engineering and Development:
      Following survey it was decided that elimination of the bend at Rushycombe would involve culverting and filling in a deep goyle, [and] that the filling for this job could be obtained from Telegraph Hill.
    • 1967, Ronald Frederick Delderfield, Cheap Day Return:
      The scene was very animated and interesting to watch but the effort of trying to make sense of so much confusion was exhausting and, from time to time, I turned away and deliberately lost myself in the deep goyle that ran down to the cove ...
    • 2008, Richard Anthony Edwards, Geology of the Jurassic Coast: The Red Coast Revealed : Exmouth to Lyme Regis, Harbour Publishing, →ISBN:
      Just south of the road, the infant stream descends into a deep goyle.

Alternative forms

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Anagrams

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