Gall definition | Dictionary.com

gall

1 [gawl]

–noun

1.	impudence; effrontery.

2.	bile, esp. that of an animal.

3.	something bitter or severe.

4.	bitterness of spirit; rancor.

—Idiom

5.	gall and wormwood, bitterness of spirit; deep resentment.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE galla, gealla; c. G Galle; akin to L fel, Gk chol

gall, bile

Synonyms:
1. nerve, audacity, brass, cheek.

gall

2 [gawl]

–verb (used with object)

1.	to make sore by rubbing; chafe severely: The saddle galled the horse's back.

2.	to vex or irritate greatly: His arrogant manner galls me.

–verb (used without object)

3.	to be or become chafed.

4.	Machinery. (of either of two engaging metal parts) to lose metal to the other because of heat or molecular attraction resulting from friction.

5.	Metallurgy. (of a die or compact in powder metallurgy) to lose surface material through adhesion to the die.

–noun

6.	a sore on the skin, esp. of a horse, due to rubbing; excoriation.

7.	something very vexing or irritating.

8.	a state of vexation or irritation.

Origin:
bef. 1000; ME galle (n.), gallen (v.) perh. < MD, MLG gall, akin to OE gealla sore on a horse

gall

3 [gawl]

–noun

any abnormal vegetable growth or excrescence on plants, caused by various agents, as insects, nematodes, fungi, bacteria, viruses, chemicals, and mechanical injuries.

Origin:
1350–1400; ME galle < MF < L galla gallnut. See gall ²

Gall

[gawl]

–noun

(Pizi

), 1840?–94, leader of the Hunkpapa Sioux: a major chief in the battle of Little Bighorn.

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To Gall

bile (bīl)

A bitter, alkaline, brownish-yellow or greenish-yellow fluid that is secreted by the liver, stored in the gallbladder, and discharged into the duodenum and aids in the emulsification, digestion, and absorption of fats. Also called gall¹.
Bitterness of temper; ill humor; irascibility.
Either of two bodily humors, black bile or yellow bile, in ancient and medieval physiology.

[French, from Latin bīlis.]

gall¹ (gôl)

See bile.
1. Bitterness of feeling; rancor.
2. Something bitter to endure: the gall of defeat.
Outrageous insolence; effrontery.

[Middle English, from Old English gealla, galla; see ghel-² in Indo-European roots.]

gall² (gôl)

A skin sore caused by friction and abrasion: a saddle gall.
1. Exasperation; vexation.
2. The cause of such vexation.

v. galled, gall·ing, galls

v. tr.

To make (the skin) sore by abrasion; chafe.
To damage or break the surface of by or as if by friction; abrade: the bark of saplings galled by improper staking. See Synonyms at chafe.
To irk or exasperate; vex: It galled me to have to wait outside.

v. intr.
To become irritated, chafed, or sore.

[Middle English galle, from Old English gealla, possibly from Latin galla, nutgall.]

gall³ (gôl)

n. An abnormal swelling of plant tissue caused by insects, microorganisms, or external injury.

[Middle English galle, from Old French, from Latin galla, nutgall.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Gall

Gall\, n.[OE. galle, gal, AS. gealla; akin to D. gal, OS. & OHG. galla, Icel. gall, SW. galla, Dan. galde, L. fel, Gr. ?, and prob. to E. yellow. ? See Yellow, and cf. Choler]

1. (Physiol.) The bitter, alkaline, viscid fluid found in the gall bladder, beneath the liver. It consists of the secretion of the liver, or bile, mixed with that of the mucous membrane of the gall bladder.

2. The gall bladder.

3. Anything extremely bitter; bitterness; rancor.

He hath . . . compassed me with gall and travail. --Lam. iii. 5.

Comedy diverted without gall. --Dryden.

4. Impudence; brazen assurance. [Slang]

Gall bladder (Anat.), the membranous sac, in which the bile, or gall, is stored up, as secreted by the liver; the cholecystis. See Illust. of Digestive apparatus.

Gall duct, a duct which conveys bile, as the cystic duct, or the hepatic duct.

Gall sickness, a remitting bilious fever in the Netherlands. --Dunglison.

Gall of the earth (Bot.), an herbaceous composite plant with variously lobed and cleft leaves, usually the Prenanthes serpentaria.

Gall

Gall\, n. [F. galle, noix de galle, fr. L. galla.] (Zo["o]l.) An excrescence of any form produced on any part of a plant by insects or their larvae. They are most commonly caused by small Hymenoptera and Diptera which puncture the bark and lay their eggs in the wounds. The larvae live within the galls. Some galls are due to aphids, mites, etc. See Gallnut.

Note: The galls, or gallnuts, of commerce are produced by insects of the genus Cynips, chiefly on an oak (Quercus infectoria or Lusitanica) of Western Asia and Southern Europe. They contain much tannin, and are used in the manufacture of that article and for making ink and a black dye, as well as in medicine.

Gall insect (Zo["o]l.), any insect that produces galls.

Gall midge (Zo["o]l.), any small dipterous insect that produces galls.

Gall oak, the oak (Quercus infectoria) which yields the galls of commerce.

Gall of glass, the neutral salt skimmed off from the surface of melted crown glass;- called also glass gall and sandiver. --Ure.

Gall wasp. (Zo["o]l.) See Gallfly.

Gall

Gall\, v. t. (Dyeing) To impregnate with a decoction of gallnuts. --Ure.

Gall

Gall\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Galled; p. pr. & vb. n. Galling.] [OE. gallen; cf. F. galer to scratch, rub, gale scurf, scab, G. galle a disease in horses' feet, an excrescence under the tongue of horses; of uncertain origin. Cf. Gall gallnut.]

1. To fret and wear away by friction; to hurt or break the skin of by rubbing; to chafe; to injure the surface of by attrition; as, a saddle galls the back of a horse; to gall a mast or a cable.

I am loth to gall a new-healed wound. --Shak.

2. To fret; to vex; as, to be galled by sarcasm.

They that are most galled with my folly, They most must laugh. --Shak.

3. To injure; to harass; to annoy; as, the troops were galled by the shot of the enemy.

In our wars against the French of old, we used to gall them with our longbows, at a greater distance than they could shoot their arrows. --Addison.

Gall

Gall\, v. i. To scoff; to jeer. [R.] --Shak.

Gall

Gall\, n. A wound in the skin made by rubbing.

Language Translation for : Gall

Spanish: bilis, hiel,

German: die Galle,

Japanese: 胆汁

More Translations »

gall (1)

"bile," O.E. galla (Anglian), gealla (W. Saxon), from P.Gmc. *gallon- (cf. O.N. gall, O.H.G. galla), from PIE base *ghol-/*ghel- "gold, yellow, yellowish-green" (cf. Gk. khole, see cholera; L. fel; perhaps also O.E. geolo "yellow," Gk. khloros). Informal sense of "impudence, boldness" first recorded Amer.Eng. 1882; but meaning "embittered spirit, rancor" is from c.1200.

gall (2)

"sore spot on a horse," O.E. gealla "painful swelling," from L. galla "gall, lump on plant," originally "oak apple," of uncertain origin. Perhaps from or influenced by gall (1) on notion of "poison-sore." The verb meaning "to make sore by chafing" is from c.1440; fig. sense of "harass, irritate" is from 1573.

Main Entry: ¹gall
Pronunciation: 'gol
Function: noun
: BILE;especially : bile obtained from an animal and used in the arts or medicine

Main Entry: ²gall
Function: noun
: a skin sore caused by chronic irritation

Main Entry: ³gall
Function: transitive verb
: to fret and wear away by friction :

CHAFE

galled the horse's back>

Main Entry: ⁴gall
Function: noun
: a swelling of plant tissue usually due to fungi or insect parasites and sometimes forming an important source of tannin

gall ¹ (gôl)
n.
See bile.

gall ² (gôl)
n.
A skin sore caused by friction and abrasion. v. galled, gall·ing, galls
To become irritated, chafed, or sore.

gall (gôl) Pronunciation Key
An abnormal swelling of plant tissue, caused by injury or by parasitic organisms such as insects, mites, nematodes, and bacteria. Parasites stimulate the production of galls by secreting chemical irritants on or in the plant tissue. Galls stimulated by egg-laying parasites typically provide a protective environment in which the eggs can hatch and the pupae develop, and they usually do only minor damage to the host plant. Gall-stimulating fungi and microorganisms, such as the bacterium that causes crown gall, are generally considered to be plant diseases.

Gall

(1) Heb. mererah, meaning "bitterness" (Job 16:13); i.e., the bile secreted in the liver. This word is also used of the poison of asps (20:14), and of the vitals, the seat of life (25). (2.) Heb. rosh. In Deut. 32:33 and Job 20:16 it denotes the poison of serpents. In Hos. 10:4 the Hebrew word is rendered "hemlock." The original probably denotes some bitter, poisonous plant, most probably the poppy, which grows up quickly, and is therefore coupled with wormwood (Deut. 29:18; Jer. 9:15; Lam. 3:19). Comp. Jer. 8:14; 23:15, "water of gall," Gesenius, "poppy juice;" others, "water of hemlock," "bitter water." (3.) Gr. chole (Matt. 27:34), the LXX. translation of the Hebrew _rosh_ in Ps. 69; 21, which foretells our Lord's sufferings. The drink offered to our Lord was vinegar (made of light wine rendered acid, the common drink of Roman soldiers) "mingled with gall," or, according to Mark (15:23), "mingled with myrrh;" both expressions meaning the same thing, namely, that the vinegar was made bitter by the infusion of wormwood or some other bitter substance, usually given, according to a merciful custom, as an anodyne to those who were crucified, to render them insensible to pain. Our Lord, knowing this, refuses to drink it. He would take nothing to cloud his faculties or blunt the pain of dying. He chooses to suffer every element of woe in the bitter cup of agony given him by the Father (John 18:11).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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Gall

Hunkpapa Sioux war chief, who was one of the most important military leaders at the Battle of the Little Bighorn (June 25, 1876).

Learn more about Gall with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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