Lloyd George is a cool cat

After the others had grown weary of the game, my friend and I continued to play what I was told was called "Take Two". I'm sure you've all played this game before. You use Scrabble tiles all face down in the middle of the table. You rush to make words before the next guy says "take two" at which time you take two more tiles and the game goes on. Anyway, the details of the game aren't necessarily that important. But my friend and I were playing, as the others had grown weary, and both of our tile grids were migrating into the other; it was taking an awful long time . I learned a lot of words during the game, but this one was near the very end and the word "shoal" stuck out to me.

shoal

–noun
1. a place where a sea, river, or other body of water is shallow.
2. a sandbank or sand bar in the bed of a body of water, esp. one that is exposed above the surface of the water at low tide.

I had used the word in my grid but had no idea if it was even a word. "Erm... eh... is this a word?" The others examined my tiles.

–adjective
3. of little depth, as water; shallow.

"Of course not!" laughed my competitor, "what does it mean then?" I could have sworn that I'd read it somewhere, but I couldn't pull up the definition. "Uh..."

–verb (used without object)
4. to become shallow or more shallow.

Then, someone came to my rescue. "What?!? That's a word! Seriously, you guys..." and he rattled off his definitions. He was so frustrated at our ignorance that he was slightly incoherent and I couldn't quite make out what he was saying.

–verb (used with object)
5. to cause to become shallow.
6. Nautical. to sail so as to lessen the depth of (the water under a vessel).

And indeed, it is a word, or so says the dictionary. I'm pretty sure I'm going to use this word again sometime. I mean, noun, adjective, and verb! I can't resist.

p.s. if you knew this word already and your intelligence is feeling slightly insulted as a result of this post, please send it my regards and express my sincere apology.