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a large bundle or package prepared for shipping, storage, or sale, especially one tightly compressed and secured by wires, hoops, cords, or the like, and sometimes having a wrapping or covering:
a bale of cotton; a bale of hay.
a group of turtles.
to make or form into bales:
to bale wastepaper for disposal.
Historical Examples

Mats are made at both Casiguran and baler, and enter to a small extent, the interprovincial trade with neighboring provinces.
Philippine Mats Hugo H. Miller

He dipped the baler in carefully, and brought it out dripping.
Blue Jackets George Manville Fenn

In some districts a baler is used: a square box with a compressible lid.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 1 Various

Sitting down with the baler in his hand by the hole, he waited and looked about.
Wyndham’s Pal Harold Bindloss

Then she gave a trembling cry—the baler struck against the side of the canoe and dropped overboard.
The Ebbing Of The Tide Louis Becke

Sometimes he used the bucket and sometimes the baler, for water came on board fast.
Wyndham’s Pal Harold Bindloss

I emptied my baler, holding perhaps a quart, into the ballast-bag.
A Poor Man’s House Stephen Sydney Reynolds

The one oar, the baler, and a few fathoms of line on the floorboards.
Wulfric the Weapon Thane Charles W. Whistler

They had wounds to exhibit received in a chance fray a few days before with a hunting party from near baler.
The Negrito and Allied Types in the Philippines and The Ilongot or Ibilao of Luzon David P. Barrows

We’ve a baler, to cope with the leak… and when we have her more or less staunch, here’s the way around to our camp.
Foe-Farrell Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

noun
an agricultural machine for making bales of hay, etc Also called baling machine
noun
a large bundle, esp of a raw or partially processed material, bound by ropes, wires, etc, for storage or transportation: bale of hay
a large package or carton of goods
(US) 500 pounds of cotton
a group of turtles
(Austral & NZ) See wool bale
verb
to make (hay, etc) into a bale or bales
to put (goods) into packages or cartons
(Austral & NZ) to pack and compress (wool) into wool bales
noun (archaic)
evil; injury
woe; suffering; pain
verb
a variant spelling of bail2
noun
a variant spelling of bail4
noun
the French name for Basle
n.

machine that makes bales, 1888, agent noun from bale (v.).
n.

“large bundle or package,” early 14c., from Old French bale “rolled-up bundle,” from a Germanic source (cf. Old High German balla “ball”), from Proto-Germanic *ball-, from PIE *bhel- (2) “to blow, swell” (see bole).