Word: haul Part of Speech: verb 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”). Pronunciation: /hɔːl/, /hoːl/, /hɔl/, /hɑl/, /hɒl/ 1. To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle. Labels: transitive Example: to haul logs to a sawmill Example: When I was seven or eight years of age, I began hauling all the wood used in the house and shops. I could not load it on the wagons, of course, at the time, but I could drive [the horses], and the choppers would load, and some one at the house unload. 2. To draw or pull something heavy. Labels: transitive Example: Thither they bent, and haul'd their ſhip to land, / (The crooked keel divides the yellow ſand) / Ulyſſes ſleeping on his couch they bore, / And gently plac'd him on the rocky ſhore. Example: A spacious breach we make, and Troy's proud wall, / Built by the gods, by her own hands doth fall; / Thus all their help to their own ruin give, / Some draw with cords and some the monster drive / With rolls and levers: thus our works it climbs, / Big with our fate; the youth with songs and rhimes, / Some dance, some haul the rope; at last let down / It enters with a thundering noise the town, / Oh Troy, the seat of gods, in war renown'd! 3. To carry or transport something, with a connotation that the item is heavy or otherwise difficult to move. Labels: transitive Example: The California fruit trade is all handled by the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe railroads. The last named road operates its own refrigerator cars and fixes its own rates. It hauls fully half of the traffic and it is therefore evident that the "Beef Trust" has no voice or power in the matter. […] The same condition exists with the melon grower of Colorado, except that in this case the Santa Fe road hauls nearly all of the product. 4. To drag, to pull, to tug. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: The 26-year-old [Papiss Cissé] has proved a revelation since his £10m move from Freiburg, with his 11 goals in 10 matches hauling Newcastle above Spurs, who went down to Adel Taarabt's goal in Saturday's late kick-off at Loftus Road. 5. Followed by up: to summon to be disciplined or held answerable for something. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: Well, it is impossible to carry stock by train or steamer without causing some pain or suffering, and to be hauled up before a Justice of the Peace […] without a warrant because somebody thinks you have caused unnecessary pain seems to me to be an outrageous proceeding. […] [T]o enact a Draconian law that if anybody who does not know anything about the subject thinks when you are trying to get a bullock into a truck when he will not go you are acting cruelly he can inform the police, and you can be arrested there and then and hauled up before a Justice of the Peace. 6. To pull apart, as oxen sometimes do when yoked. Labels: intransitive 7. To steer (a vessel) closer to the wind. Labels: ambitransitive Example: When the Admiral hauls out of the Line, and remains ſo for ſome Accident, although the Signal for the Line is flying, and the Signal for Battle then out, ought not the other Ships to continue in the Line, doing their Duty, engaging the Enemy? Example: On Tueſday the 4th of April, about ten o'clock in the morning, Mr. Banks's ſervant, Peter Briſcoe, diſcovered land, bearing fourth, at the diſtance of about three or four leagues. I immediately hauled up for it, and found it to be an iſland of an oval form, with a lagoon in the middle, which occupied much the larger part of it; […] 8. Of the wind: to shift fore (more towards the bow). Labels: intransitive Example: The wind, serving us to a desire, now hauled into the west. 9. To haul ass (“go fast”). Labels: US, colloquial, intransitive Example: “How fast was he goin’?” / “I don’t know exactly, but he must’ve been haulin’, given where he landed.”