plural of rale

(medicine) Abnormal clicking, rattling or crackling sound heard from the lungs, often audible only with a stethoscope.

(MLE, slang) The police.

(medicine, now chiefly in plural) An abnormal clicking, rattling or crackling sound, made by one or both lungs and heard with a stethoscope, caused by the popping open of airways collapsed by fluid or exudate, or sometimes by pulmonary edema.