Standard Lemma guide

haul

noun · verb · 19 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /hɔːl/
  • Australian, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard: /hoːl/
  • Queensland Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /hɔl/ without the cot–caught merger
  • General-American, cot-caught-merger, dialectal: /hɑl/ of Canada
  • Canada: /hɒl/
  • Scotland: /hɔl/
  • rhymes with -ɔːl
  • homophone: hall
  • CMU ARPABET: HH AO1 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

An act of hauling or pulling, particularly with force; a (violent) pull or tug.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

The distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • Getting to his place was a real haul.
  • I find long-haul travel by airplane tiring.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

An amount of something that has been taken, especially of fish, illegal loot, or items purchased on a shopping trip.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • The robber’s haul was over thirty items.
  • The trawler landed a ten-ton haul.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Ellipsis of haul video (“video posted on the Internet consisting of someone showing and talking about recently purchased items”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Internet, abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

A bundle of many threads to be tarred.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: arts, crafts, hobbies, lifestyle, nautical, ropemaking, transport

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 6

Four goals scored by one player in a game.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK

Topics: ball-games, games, hobbies, lifestyle, soccer, sports

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: poker

Antonyms: none provided

7

verb

Meaning 7

To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

Examples

  • to haul logs to a sawmill

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

8

verb

Meaning 8

To draw or pull something heavy.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

9

verb

Meaning 9

To carry or transport something, with a connotation that the item is heavy or otherwise difficult to move.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

10

verb

Meaning 10

To drag, to pull, to tug.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: figuratively, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

11

verb

Meaning 11

Followed by up: to summon to be disciplined or held answerable for something.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: figuratively, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

12

verb

Meaning 12

To pull apart, as oxen sometimes do when yoked.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

13

verb

Meaning 13

To steer (a vessel) closer to the wind.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: ambitransitive

Topics: nautical, transport

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: veer

14

verb

Meaning 14

Of the wind: to shift fore (more towards the bow).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive

Topics: nautical, transport

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: veer

15

verb

Meaning 15

To haul ass (“go fast”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, colloquial, intransitive

Examples

  • “How fast was he goin’?” / “I don’t know exactly, but he must’ve been haulin’, given where he landed.”

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

16

noun

Meaning 16

the act of drawing or hauling something

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the haul up the hill went very slowly

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: draw, haulage

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: pull, pulling

Narrower terms: tow, towage

17

noun

Meaning 17

the quantity that was caught

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the catch was only 10 fish

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: catch

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: indefinite quantity

18

verb

Meaning 18

transport in a vehicle

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • haul stones from the quarry in a truck
  • haul vegetables to the market

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: transport, carry

Narrower terms: piggyback

19

verb

Meaning 19

draw slowly or heavily

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • haul stones
  • haul nets

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: hale, cart, drag

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: pull, draw, force

Narrower terms: bowse, bouse

History

Etymology

From Middle English hālen, hailen, haulen, halien (“to drag, pull; to draw up”), from Old French haler (“to haul, pull”), from Frankish *halōn (“to drag, fetch, haul”) or Middle Dutch halen (“to drag, fetch, haul”), possibly merging with Old English *halian (“to haul, drag”); all from Proto-Germanic *halōną, *halēną, *hulōną (“to call, fetch, summon”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh1- (“to call, cry, summon”). The noun is derived from the verb. Cognates The word is cognate with Danish hale (“to haul”), Middle Dutch halen (“to draw, fetch, haul”), Dutch halen (“to fetch, bring, haul”), Old Frisian halia, Saterland Frisian halen (“to draw, haul, pull”), Low German halen (“to draw, pull”), Old High German halôn, holôn, German holen (“to fetch, get”), Norwegian hale (“to haul”), Old Saxon halôn (“to fetch, get”), Swedish hala (“to hale, haul, pull, tug”), and related to Old English ġeholian (“to get, obtain”).

Across languages

Translations

100 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Hungarian: húzás — act of hauling or pulling
  • Hungarian: vontatás — act of hauling or pulling
  • Bulgarian: буксир (buksir) — distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long
  • German: Streckenzurücklegung — distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long
  • German: Transportweg — distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long
  • Hungarian: táv — distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long
  • Hungarian: távolság — distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long
  • Polish: holowanie — distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long
  • Polish: wleczenie — distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long
  • Russian: перево́зка (perevózka) — distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long
  • Russian: волоче́ние (voločénije) — distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long
  • Volapük: löpiotir fitafiläta — distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long
  • Bulgarian: улов (ulov) — amount of something taken
  • Dutch: buit — amount of something taken
  • Dutch: vangst — amount of something taken
  • French: butin — amount of something taken
  • French: magot — amount of something taken
  • Galician: redada — amount of something taken
  • German: Fischzug — amount of something taken
  • German: Fang — amount of something taken
  • German: Beute — amount of something taken
  • Hungarian: zsákmány — amount of something taken
  • Hungarian: fogás — amount of something taken
  • Norwegian Bokmål: fangst — amount of something taken
  • Norwegian Bokmål: bytte — amount of something taken
  • Russian: уло́в (ulóv) — amount of something taken
  • Welsh: dalfa — amount of something taken
  • Welsh: dalfeydd — amount of something taken
  • German: Einkaufsausbeute — specifically: all of the items purchased on a shopping trip
  • German: Einkaufsbeute — specifically: all of the items purchased on a shopping trip
  • Russian: заку́пка (zakúpka) — specifically: all of the items purchased on a shopping trip
  • Korean: 포트트릭 (poteuteurik) — soccer: four goals in one game
  • Bulgarian: дърпам (dǎrpam) — to transport by drawing or pulling
  • Finnish: kiskoa — to transport by drawing or pulling
  • Finnish: juontaa — to transport by drawing or pulling
  • Hungarian: húz — to transport by drawing or pulling
  • Polish: holować — to transport by drawing or pulling
  • Bulgarian: влача (vlača) — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Bulgarian: тегля (teglja) — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Finnish: raahata — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Finnish: haalata — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Finnish: kiskoa — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Finnish: laahata — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Finnish: hinata — to draw or pull something heavy
  • French: haler — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Galician: halar — to draw or pull something heavy
  • German: ziehen — to draw or pull something heavy
  • German: schleppen — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Hungarian: vontat — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Hungarian: vonszol — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Māori: kohi — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Māori: kohikohi — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Norman: haler — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Polish: ciągać — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Polish: ciągnąć — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Russian: тяну́ть (tjanútʹ) — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Russian: волочи́ть (voločítʹ) — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Scottish Gaelic: slaod — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Slovak: vliecť — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Slovak: ťahať — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Spanish: empujar — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Spanish: tirar fuerte — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Ottoman Turkish: چكمك (çekmek) — to draw or pull something heavy
  • Belarusian: вазіць (vazicʹ) — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Belarusian: павазіць (pavazicʹ) — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Belarusian: везці (vjezci) — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Belarusian: павезці (pavjezci) — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Finnish: raahata — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Finnish: haalata — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Finnish: hilata — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • French: trainer — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • German: transportieren — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • German: befödern — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Hungarian: szállít — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Hungarian: szállítmányoz — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Hungarian: fuvaroz — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Latvian: vilkt — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Lithuanian: vilkti — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Polish: transportować — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Polish: wlec — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Russian: тащи́ть (taščítʹ) — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Russian: букси́ровать (buksírovatʹ) — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Slovak: vliecť — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Slovak: transportovať — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Spanish: llevar — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Spanish: carrear — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Spanish: acarrear — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Spanish: transportar — to carry or transport something heavy or difficult to move
  • Bulgarian: дърпам (dǎrpam) — figuratively: to drag, pull, tug — see also drag, pull, tug
  • Finnish: vetää — figuratively: to drag, pull, tug — see also drag, pull, tug
  • Finnish: hilata — figuratively: to drag, pull, tug — see also drag, pull, tug
  • Hungarian: beidéz — to summon to be disciplined or held answerable for something
  • Hungarian: becitál — to summon to be disciplined or held answerable for something
  • Hungarian: idéz — to summon to be disciplined or held answerable for something
  • Hungarian: citál — to summon to be disciplined or held answerable for something
  • Finnish: nostaa tuuleen — nautical: to steer closer to the wind
  • Finnish: luuvata — nautical: to steer closer to the wind
  • Polish: wyostrzać — nautical: to steer closer to the wind
  • Polish: wyostrzyć — nautical: to steer closer to the wind
  • Finnish: kääntyä vastaiseen — nautical: of the wind: to shift fore