gall

CEFRC1

/ɡɔːl/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
Bold behavior that seems rude or disrespectful.
02
noun
Extra detail
A gallbladder.

Examples

Even a nightingale isn't without its gall.
For gall bladder surgery, go down this hall and take a right.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 1
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 2

Also pronounced

/ɡoːl/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

Bile, especially that of an animal; the greenish, profoundly bitter-tasting fluid found in bile ducts and gall bladders, structures associated with the liver.
Impudence or brazenness; temerity; chutzpah.
Great misery or physical suffering, likened to the bitterest-tasting of substances.

More examples

In context

He had the gall to ignore my advice.
Improper cooling and a dull milling cutter on titanium can gall the surface.
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.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

He had the blank to interrupt the speaker and argue loudly in front of everyone.

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Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

“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.
1917, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 6, in The Oakdale Affair
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
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 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.
1974, Philip P. Wiener, editor, Dictionary of the History of Ideas
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 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.
1653, Izaak Walton, chapter 21, in The Compleat Angler
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

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Origin

noun

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.

Deep Dive

noun

More examples

Related

Quick test

He had the blank— to interrupt the speaker and argue loudly in front of everyone.

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Origin

noun

He had the blank to interrupt the speaker and argue loudly in front of everyone.