Past tense of bale; to wrap or compress something, usually hay, straw, or cotton, into compact bundles.
From Middle English and Old French 'bale,' possibly from Germanic roots meaning 'ball' or 'bundle.' The form emerged as farming terminology.
The round bales you see in fields today were invented in 1972—before that, baling meant making rectangular bales, and the word had the same meaning for hundreds of years!
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