خَلَلٌ

An interstice, an interspace or intervening space, a break, a breach, a chink, or a gap, between two things; (JK, S, Msb, K;) plural خِلَالٌ: (JK, S, Msb:) and particularly the places, (K,) or interstices, (S,) of the clouds, from which the rain issues; as also ↓ خِلَالٌ; (S, K;) both occurring in this sense, according to different readings, in the Qur'an, 24:43 and xxx. 47: (S, TA:) the latter may be [grammatically] a singular [synonym with the former], or it may be plural of the former: (MF, TA:) and الدَّارِ ↓ خِلَالُ signifies what is around the limits of the house; (JK, K;) or around the walls thereof; thus in the M; (TA;) and what is between the chambers thereof. (K.) You say, دَخَلْتُ بَيْنَ خَلَلِ القَوْمِ and ↓ خِلَالِهِمْ [I entered amid the breaks, or interspaces, of the people]. (S, Msb.) And هُوَ خَلَلَهُمْ and ↓ خِلَالَهُمْ (M, K) and ↓ خَلَالَهُمْ (K [but in the CK these words are with damm to the second ل]) He is amid them. (M, K.) And بُيُوتِ الحّى ↓ جُسْنَا خِلَالَ, and دُورِ القَوْمِ ↓ خِلَالَ, i. e. [We went, or went to and fro, or went round about, &c.,] amid the tents of the tribe, and in the midst of the houses of the people; like a phrase in the Qur'an, 17:5. (TA.)

And [hence] Shakiness, looseness, laxness, or want of compactness, and disorder, or want of order, of a thing; (Msb;) unsoundness, or corruptness, (S, Msb, *) in an affair or a thing, (S,) or of a thing; (Msb;) [a flaw in a thing;] defect, imperfection, or deficiency; (Ham p. 300;) weakness, or infirmity, in an affair, (JK, K, TA,) as though some place thereof were left uncompact, or unsound, (TA,) and in war, (JK,) and in men: (JK, K: *) and (tropical:) unsettledness in an opinion. (K, * TA.)

الخَلَلُ The night. (JK, Ibn- 'Abbád.)