seel

Everyday

1. (old, falconry) To seel a hawk or falcon was to sew its eyelids shut for a while to tame it. This is not done today and is thought cruel. tree →
2. (old, poetry) Seel can mean to close someone's eyes, to blind them. tree →

In the lessons

Very rare: you will only meet it in old books, poems or history of falconry. Much more often you will hear its sound-alikes: «seal» (an animal; to close tightly) and «ceiling». If you see «seel» in a modern text, check whether it is a spelling mistake for «seal».

Examples

• In medieval times, falconers would seel a young hawk. tree →
• The old poem talks of night coming to seel the eyes of day. tree →
• The book explained that seeling hawks is no longer allowed. tree →
• Is «seel» a typo for «seal» in this sentence? tree →
• Hunters once seeled falcons to calm them. tree →
• «Seel» is one of the rarest words in our dictionary. tree →

Note

Homophones: seel, seal, ceil (rare) all sound like /seel/. In almost every modern sentence the right word is «seal». It is also a surname. Not the same as German «Seele» (soul).