Gall

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡɔːl/
• Rhymes: -ɔːl
• Homophones: Gaul

From Old English ġealla, related to Proto-Germanic *gallō. Cognate with Dutch gal, German Galle, Swedish galle, galla. There may also be influence from Old English geolu ("yellow").

Full definition of gall

Noun

1. (anatomy, obsolete, uncountable) Bile, especially that of an animal; the greenish, profoundly bitter-tasting fluid found in bile ducts and gall bladders, structures associated with the liver.
2. (anatomy) The gall bladder.
• Authorized Version|Job|20|24–25He 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. (uncountable, obsolete) Great misery or physical suffering, likened to the bitterest-tasting of substances.
• Authorized Version|Deuteronomy|29|18Lest 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;
• DrydenThe stage its ancient fury thus let fall,
  And comedy diverted without gall.
4. (countable) A bump-like imperfection resembling a gall.
• 1653, Izaak Walton, , Chapter 21But first for your Line. First note, that you are to take care that your hair be round and clear, and free from galls, or scabs, or frets: for a well- chosen, even, clear, round hair, of a kind of glass-colour, will prove as strong as three uneven scabby hairs that are ill-chosen, and full of galls or unevenness. You shall seldom find a black hair but it is round, but many white are flat and uneven; therefore, if you get a lock of right, round, clear, glass-colour hair, make much of it.
5. (uncountable) A feeling of exasperation.
• 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, , Chapter VIt 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.
6. (uncountable) Impudence or brazenness; temerity, chutzpah.
• 1917, Edgar Rice Burroughs, , Chapter 6“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.
7. (medicine, obsolete, countable) A sore or open wound caused by chafing, which may become infected, as with a blister.
• 1892, Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”, Leaves of GrassAnd remember perfectly well his revolving eyes and his awkwardness,
  And remember putting plasters on the galls of his neck and ankles;
8. (countable) A sore on a horse caused by an ill-fitted or ill-adjusted saddle; a saddle sore.
• 1989 National Ag Safety Database (Centers for Disease Control)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.
9. (countable) A pit caused on a surface being cut caused by the friction between the two surfaces exceeding the bond of the material at a point.

Derived terms

• gallbladder
• gallstone

Verb

1. (transitive) To trouble or bother.
• Stevenson Treasure|Five, Chapter 27I 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.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 15, Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.
2. To harass, to harry, often with the intent to cause injury.
• June 24, 1778, George Washington, The Writings of George Washington From the Original Manuscript Sources: Volume 12, 1745–1799The 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.
3. To chafe, to rub or subject to friction; to create a sore on the skin.
• Defoe Crusoe…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.
4. To exasperate.
• 1979, Mark Bowden, “Captivity Pageant”, The Atlantic, Volume 296, No. 5, pp. 92-97, December, 1979Metrinko was hungry, but he was galled by how self-congratulatory his captors seemed, how generous and noble and proudly Islamic.
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 blade on titanium can gall the surface.
6. To scoff; to jeer.

From French galle, from Latin galla ("oak-apple").

Noun

1. (countable) A blister or tumor-like growth found on the surface of plants, caused by burrowing of insect larvae into the living tissues, especially that of the common oak gall wasp .
• 1974, Philip P. Wiener (ed.), Dictionary of the History of IdeasEven so, Redi retained a belief that in certain other cases—the origin of parasites inside the human or animal body or of grubs inside of oak galls—there must be spontaneous generation. Bit by bit the evidence grew against such views. In 1670 Jan Swammerdam, painstaking student of the insect’s life cycle, suggested that the grubs in galls were enclosed in them for the sake of nourishment and must come from insects that had inserted their semen or their eggs into the plants.

Synonyms

• nutgall

Derived terms

• gall midge
• gall wasp
• gallfly

Verb

1. To impregnate with a decoction of gallnuts in dyeing.----