arch. Forms: 1 angul, ongul, 1–2 angel, 4 angil, 5 -ell, -ylle, (hangul), 5– angle. [OE. angul, cogn. w. OS. and OHG. angul (mod.G. angel), ON. öngull:—*angulr; cf. L. unc-us, angulus, and Aryan root ank- to bend.]
1. A fishing-hook; often, in later use, extended to the line or tackle to which it is fastened, and the rod to which the latter is attached. arch.
c. 880. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xx. Swa swa mid angle fisc ʓefangen biþ.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xvii. 27. Gae to sæ & sende ongul vel hóc.
c. 1160. Hatton G., ibid. Wirp þinne angel ut. [Tindale, Genev. angle; Wyclif, Rhem., 1611 hook.]
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Angylle to take wyth fysche, Piscale, fistuca.
1496. Bk. St. Albans (title of ed. 2), Treatyse perteynynge to Hawkynge, Huntynge and Fysshynge with an Angle.
1535. Coverdale, Job xl. 20. Darrest thou drawe Leuiathan with an angle?
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. v. 10. Giue me mine Angle, weele to ’th’ Riuer.
1611. Bible, Isa. xix. 8. They that cast angle upon the brookes shall lament.
1653. Walton, Angler, 120. You will be pleased too, if you find a Trout at one of our Angles.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 187. With patient angle trolls the finny deep.
1829. J. Clare, Autumn, in Anniv., 76. On which the shepherd crawls astride, to throw His angle clear of weeds.
† 2. fig. A person or thing that catches like a hook. Obs.
1535. Coverdale, Eccles. vii. 26. A woman is bytterer then death: for she is a very angle, hir hert is a nett.
1537. ? Tindale, Exp. St. John, 45. He can not … hyde the angle of his poysoned heresye vnder a bayte of true doctrine.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. i. (1641), 6/2. Yea Faith it selfe, and Zeale, be sometimes Angles, Wherewith this Juggler heav’n-bent souls intangles.
3. Comb. † angle-head, the barbed head of an arrow; † angle-taster, an Arctic bird; angle-worm, a worm for bait. Also ANGLE-HOOK, -ROD, -TWITCH, q.v.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, IV. 554. Ane angell hede to the hukis he drew, And at a schoyt the formast sone he sleu.
1743. in Phil. Trans., XLII. 612. Greenland produces Maws, Redshanks … Angle-tasters, Snipes, &c.
1875. B. Taylor, Faust, I. i. 26. Digs with eager hand for buried ore, And, when it finds an angle worm, rejoices.
4. [f. ANGLE v.1] An act of angling. Here fig.
1874. Hardy, Madding Crowd, II. i. 5. She forgot for a moment her thoughtless angle on that day in February.
