gall

noun

1. 1

   Impudence or brazenness; temerity; chutzpah.

   “Durn ye!” he cried. “I’ll lam ye! Get offen here. I knows ye. Yer one o’ that gang o’ bums that come here last night, an’ now you got the gall to come back beggin’ for food, eh? I’ll lam ye!” and he raised the gun to his shoulder.

   Prichard, while keeping school, had the unmitigated gall to teach Greek, although he had never studied the subject.

   In July 1938, that was sufficient to call down contempt and hatred on us, and brand us as men of unmitigated gall.

   It requires the cunning of a chess master, the planning of a field marshal, the adroitness and polish of a premier of France, or, failing these, the sheer, unmitigated gall of your door-to-door salesman.

2. 2

   archaicA gallbladder.

   He shall flee from the iron weapon and the bow of steel shall strike him through. It is drawn and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall.

3. 3

   archaicBile, especially that of an animal; the greenish, profoundly bitter-tasting fluid found in bile ducts and gall bladders, structures associated with the liver.

4. 4

   figurativeGreat misery or physical suffering, likened to the bitterest-tasting of substances.

   Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;

   The stage its ancient fury thus let fall, / And comedy diverted without gall.

   […] I hated him with a hatred that turned my life to gall […]

noun

1. 1

   A sore on a horse caused by an ill-fitted or ill-adjusted saddle; a saddle sore.

   Riding a horse with bruised or broken skin can cause a gall, which frequently results in the white saddle marks seen on the withers and backs of some horses.

2. 2

   A sore or open wound caused by chafing, which may become infected, as with a blister.

   And remember perfectly well his revolving eyes and his awkwardness, / And remember putting plasters on the galls of his neck and ankles;

3. 3

   figurativeA feeling of exasperation.

   Thou ſhalt be leader of this thouſand horſe, Whoſe foming galle with rage and high diſdaine, Haue ſworne the death of wicked Tamburlaine.

   It moves my gall to hear a preacher descanting on dress and needle-work; and still more, to hear him address the British fair, the fairest of the fair, as if they had only feelings.

   He's sure got a lotta gall / To be so useless and all / Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall

4. 4

   A pit on a surface being cut caused by the friction between the two surfaces exceeding the bond of the material at a point.

verb

1. 1

   To chafe, to rub or subject to friction; to create a sore on the skin.

   […] he went awkwardly in these clothes at first: wearing the drawers was very awkward to him, and the sleeves of the waistcoat galled his shoulders and the inside of his arms; but a little easing them where he complained they hurt him, and using himself to them, he took to them at length very well.

   I heard him curse his own misery, while he hugged the chains that galled him:

   But, alas! the heart once bruised and galled recovers itself but slowly, and it was many minutes before the softest words the eloquent lover could shape to sound sufficed to dry those burning tears, […].

   Had Ninus not made offer of a high reward when Nineveh should be builded at the end of two short years? Ah, here the sandal galled!

2. 2

   figurativeTo bother or trouble.

   It is as lack of breath or bread: life hath no grief more galling.

   I went below, and did what I could for my wound; it pained me a good deal, and still bled freely; but it was neither deep nor dangerous, nor did it greatly gall me when I used my arm.

3. 3

   figurativeTo harass, to harry, often with the intent to cause injury.

   The disposition for these detachments is as follows – Morgans corps, to gain the enemy’s right flank; Maxwells brigade to hang on their left. Brigadier Genl. Scott is now marching with a very respectable detachment destined to gall the enemys left flank and rear.

   However he had concealed it from the eyes of others, the haughty ire of Margaret must have galled him in his deepest soul.

   As Bactria had pressed upon Assyria's force below, so now Prince Menon galled the Bactrians from his vantage point above, destroying them with arrows and with slings, with down-flung stones and the trunks of fallen trees.

4. 4

   figurativeTo exasperate.

   Metrinko was hungry, but he was galled by how self-congratulatory his captors seemed, how generous and noble and proudly Islamic.

5. 5

   To cause pitting on a surface being cut from the friction between the two surfaces exceeding the bond of the material at a point.

   Improper cooling and a dull milling cutter on titanium can gall the surface.

6. 6

   obsoleteTo scoff; to jeer.

   I have seen you gleeking and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought, because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could not therefore handle an English cudgel

noun

1. 1

   A blister or tumor-like growth found on the surface of plants, caused by various pathogens, especially the burrowing of insect larvae into the living tissues, such as that of the common oak gall wasp (Cynips quercusfolii).

2. 2

   A bump-like imperfection resembling a gall.

verb

1. 1

   To impregnate with a decoction of gallnuts in dyeing.

   Raw silk is not galled, it is dyed at once in the black without any preparation : the liquor should be hot

Forms

plural

galls

past tense

galled

past participle

galled

present participle

galling

third person singular

galls