gall
A sore on a horse caused by an ill-fitted or ill-adjusted saddle; a saddle sore.
Noun
- 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. - 1989 National Ag Safety Database (Centers for Disease...
- 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; - 1892, Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.:...
- A 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. - c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […]...
- 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. - 1791 (date written), Mary...
- 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 - 1966, Bob Dylan, “Visions of Johanna”, in Blonde on Blonde:
- A pit on a surface being cut caused by the friction between the two surfaces exceeding the bond of the material at a point.
Origin
From Middle English galle, from Old English gealla (“a fretted spot on the skin”), from Proto-West Germanic *gallō, from Proto-Germanic *gallô (“infirmity, swelling, lesion”).
Forms
Derived
Noun Entry 2
- 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...
- Prichard, while keeping school, had the unmitigated gall to teach Greek, although he had never studied the subject. - 1891, Exercises of class day of the senior class, Tuesday, June 23, 1891, page 33:
- In July 1938, that was sufficient to call down contempt and hatred on us, and brand us as men of unmitigated gall. - 1944, Teheran: Our Path in War and Peace, page 55:
- A 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. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James...
- Bile, especially that of an animal; the greenish, profoundly bitter-tasting fluid found in bile ducts and gall bladders, structures associated with the liver.
- Great 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...
- The stage its ancient fury thus let fall, / And comedy diverted without gall. - 1683, John Dryden, The Art of Poetry:
- […] I hated him with a hatred that turned my life to gall […] - 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XIV, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas...
Origin
From Middle English galle, from Old English ġealla, galla, from Proto-West Germanic *gallā, from Proto-Germanic *gallǭ. The figurative senses (e.g., impudence, brazenness, chutzpah) are related to the literal sense (i.e., bile) via the lasting linguocultural effects of humorism, which governed Western medicine for many centuries before the advent of scientific medicine. Related to Dutch gal, German Galle, Swedish galle, galla, Ancient Greek χολή (kholḗ). Also remotely related with yellow and gold.
Forms
Derived
gall and wormwood gallbladder gall-less gallless gall-of-the-earth gallstone gally galsome oxgall scroll-gall vent one's gall
Noun biology, botany
- 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).
- Even 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...
- A bump-like imperfection resembling a gall.
- But 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...
Origin
From Middle English galle, from Old French galle, from Latin galla (“oak-apple”).
Forms
Synonyms
Derived
Aleppo gall apple gall artichoke gall bedeguar gall beech gall cane gall Chinese gall cola-nut gall coral gall cranberry gall crown gall cup gall currant gall cypress gall elm gall filbert gall fungus gall gallapple gallbush gallflower gallfly gall gnat gallic gallicolous
Verb Entry 4
- 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...
- I heard him curse his own misery, while he hugged the chains that galled him: - 1838, Martin Farquhar Tupper, “Of Sorrow”, in Proverbial Philosophy: A Book of Thoughts and Arguments, Originally Treated, London: Joseph...
- 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, […]. - 1843, Edward...
- To bother or trouble.
- It is as lack of breath or bread: life hath no grief more galling. - 1838, Martin Farquhar Tupper, “Of Speaking”, in Proverbial Philosophy: A Book of Thoughts and Arguments, Originally Treated, London: Joseph Rickerby,...
- 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. - 1881–1882, Robert Louis...
- To 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...
- However he had concealed it from the eyes of others, the haughty ire of Margaret must have galled him in his deepest soul. - 1843, Edward Bulwer[-]Lytton, The Last of the Barons, London; New York, N.Y.: George Routledge...
- 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...
- To exasperate.
- Metrinko was hungry, but he was galled by how self-congratulatory his captors seemed, how generous and noble and proudly Islamic. - 1979 December, Mark Bowden, “Captivity Pageant”, in The Atlantic, volume 296, number 5,...
Synonyms: rankle
- 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.
- To 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 - 1599 (date written), William...
Forms
Derived
Verb Entry 5
- 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 - 1815, Thomas Cooper, A Practical Treatise on Dyeing, and Callicoe Printing: