different between heal vs healful

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hi?l/
• Rhymes: -i?l
• Homophones: heel, he'll, hill (in some accents)

Etymology 1

From Middle English helen, from Old English h?lan (“to heal, cure, save, greet, salute”), from Proto-Germanic *hailijan? (“to heal, make whole, save”), from Proto-Indo-European *koyl- (“safe, unharmed”). Cognate with Scots hale, hail (“to heal”), Saterland Frisian heila, heilen (“to heal”), West Frisian hielje, Dutch helen (“to heal”), German heilen (“to heal”), Danish hele, Swedish hela (“to heal”). More at whole.

Verb

heal (third-person singular simple present heals, present participle healing, simple past and past participle healed)

1. (transitive) To make better from a disease, wound, etc.; to revive or cure.

   This bandage will heal your cut.

   • Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

2. (intransitive) To become better or healthy again.

   Bandages allow cuts to heal.

3. To reconcile, as a breach or difference; to make whole; to free from guilt.

   to heal dissensions

Synonyms

• (make better): cure, make whole
• (become better): get better, recover

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

heal (countable and uncountable, plural heals)

1. (role-playing games, countable) A spell or ability that restores hit points or removes a status ailment.
   • 2004, Computer Gaming World (volumes 234-237, page 81)

     Also, various interesting spells have been added—for instance, with the Orb spell, you can circle a character, firing offensive bolts or casting heals, and free up a mage-type to cast other spells or even melee.

   • 2009, Paul Emmerich, Beginning Lua with World of Warcraft Add-ons (page 351)

     The following macro checks whether our current target is friendly and casts a heal on it if so; otherwise it casts the heal on the target's target […]

   • 2012, Constance Steinkuehler, Kurt Squire, Sasha Barab, Games, Learning, and Society

     Synner, a priest walking by, sees her struggling and casts a heal on her.

2. (obsolete, uncountable) health

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

Etymology 2

See hele.

Verb

heal (third-person singular simple present heals, present participle healing, simple past and past participle healed)

1. (rare) Alternative form of hele (“conceal”).
   • 1907, John. H. Brownell, Arthur Maurice Smith, Joseph E. Morcombe, The American Tyler-Keystone: Devoted to Freemasonry, page 6:

     "Heal, conceal and keep secret."

   • 1998, Clive Richardson, The Horse Breakers, page 212:

     'I swear before God and all these witnesses that I will always heal, conceal and never reveal any art or part of this secret of horsemanry which is to be revealed to me at this time or any other time hereafter.'

   • 2015, Lee Morgan, The Bones Would Do: Book Two of the Christopher Penrose Novels:

     The man in black asked Christopher for the secret passwords he'd been given and he answered correctly. As soon as he had, Christopher felt the point of a blade at his throat. “Do you swear to heal, conceal and never reveal the secrets of the witching arts for all your days […] ?"

Anagrams

• Aleh, Hale, Hela, Leah, hale

Estonian

Adjective

heal

1. adessive singular of hea

Scots

Noun

heal (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) health

References

• “heal” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian half, from Proto-West Germanic *halb, from Proto-Germanic *halbaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /h???l/

Adjective

heal

1. half

Inflection

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

Further reading

• “heal”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

Yola

Noun

heal

1. Alternative form of heale

English

Etymology

From Middle English heeleful, heleful, equivalent to heal (“health, well-being”) +? -ful. Compare healless.

Adjective

healful (comparative more healful, superlative most healful)

1. Tending or serving to heal; health-promoting; healing.

   healful remedies

   • 2008, Bernardo N. De Luca, Mind-Body and Relaxation Research Focus

     As for psychogenic death, this will be the case when three supplementary, in this case, healful conditions are fulfilled: […]

2. Full of health or safety; healthy; whole; sound; safe.
   • 1913, Samuel Gompers, John McBride, William Green, The American federationist

     The public conscience demands that they work under healful conditions, with ample light, without overspceding, and with the same provisions for their safety at their work that the employer would desire for himself were he so employed.

   • 1957, Ray C. Petry, Late medieval mysticism

     And, therefore, what is more healful than the sweetness of this sight, or what softer thing may be felt?

3. Affording health or salvation.
   • 1844, John Foxe, George Townsend, The acts and monuments of John Foxe

     […] since Christ will not fail to minister, himself, all lawful and healful sacraments, and necessary at all time, and especially at the end, […]