Library / English Dictionary

GALL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The trait of being rude and impertinent; inclined to take liberties

Synonyms:

cheekiness; crust; freshness; gall; impertinence; impudence; insolence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("gall" is a kind of...):

discourtesy; rudeness (a manner that is rude and insulting)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gall"):

chutzpa; chutzpah; hutzpah ((Yiddish) unbelievable gall; insolence; audacity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A digestive juice secreted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder; aids in the digestion of fats

Synonyms:

bile; gall

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("gall" is a kind of...):

digestive fluid; digestive juice (secretions that aid digestion)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will

Synonyms:

bitterness; gall; rancor; rancour; resentment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("gall" is a kind of...):

enmity; hostility; ill will (the feeling of a hostile person)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gall"):

heartburning (intense resentment)

huffishness; sulkiness (a feeling of sulky resentment)

grievance; grudge; score (a resentment strong enough to justify retaliation)

enviousness; envy (a feeling of grudging admiration and desire to have something that is possessed by another)

Derivation:

gall (irritate or vex)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Abnormal swelling of plant tissue caused by insects or microorganisms or injury

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("gall" is a kind of...):

plant tissue (the tissue of a plant)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gall"):

oak apple (oak gall caused by larvae of a cynipid wasp)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A skin sore caused by chafing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("gall" is a kind of...):

sore (an open skin infection)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gall"):

saddle sore (sore on a horseback rider chafed by a saddle)

Derivation:

gall (become or make sore by or as if by rubbing)

Sense 6

Meaning:

An open sore on the back of a horse caused by ill-fitting or badly adjusted saddle

Synonyms:

gall; saddle sore

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("gall" is a kind of...):

animal disease (a disease that typically does not affect human beings)

Derivation:

gall (become or make sore by or as if by rubbing)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Irritate or vex

Example:

It galls me that we lost the suit

Synonyms:

gall; irk

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "gall" is one way to...):

anger (make angry)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to gall Sue

Derivation:

gall (a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Become or make sore by or as if by rubbing

Synonyms:

chafe; fret; gall

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "gall" is one way to...):

irritate (excite to an abnormal condition, or chafe or inflame)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

gall (a skin sore caused by chafing)

gall (an open sore on the back of a horse caused by ill-fitting or badly adjusted saddle)

Credits

 Context examples: 

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.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

His employment, from his first coming into the academy, was an operation to reduce human excrement to its original food, by separating the several parts, removing the tincture which it receives from the gall, making the odour exhale, and scumming off the saliva.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

“He hath good power of hatred. Couldst see by his cheek and eye that he is as bitter as verjuice. I warm to a man who hath some gall in his liver.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition, for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Exhausted by emotion, my language was more subdued than it generally was when it developed that sad theme; and mindful of Helen's warnings against the indulgence of resentment, I infused into the narrative far less of gall and wormwood than ordinary.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

This is legitimate, et j'y tiens, as Adele would say; and it is by virtue of this superiority, and this alone, that I desire you to have the goodness to talk to me a little now, and divert my thoughts, which are galled with dwelling on one point—cankering as a rusty nail.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)