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shiel

English

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shiel¹

  • /ʃiːl/

Rhymes with -iːl

Where it comes from

From Middle English schele. Akin to Old Frisian skiāle (“stable”) and Old Norse skjól (“shelter”). See also sheal.

noun shiels

  1. A shepherd's hut or shieling.
  2. A cottage. The craik amang the claver hay, The pairtrick whirrin o'er the ley, The swallow jinkin round my shiel, Amuse me at my spinnin wheel.

verb shiels · shieling · shieled

  1. intransitive To use a place as a shieling. Patrick Robertson, who shieled on the Atholl side of Drumochter, confirmed this practice: his cattle 'continued there till about midsummer, when they were brought down to his farm, having continued there about three weeks, and were then sent back to the shealing.

Shiel²

Where it comes from

Variant of Shield or Shields.

proper noun Shiels

  1. countable, uncountable A surname.
  2. countable, uncountable A short river in Highland council area, Scotland, which flows from Loch Shiel to Loch Moidart.
  3. countable, uncountable A river in Glen Shiel, further north in Highland council area.

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MLA

"shiel." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/shiel. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

shiel. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/shiel

Chicago

"shiel." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/shiel.

BibTeX
@misc{shiel_2026,
  title = {shiel},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/shiel},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}