gall

1. (countable) A sore on a horse caused by an ill-fitted or ill-adjusted saddle; a saddle sore.Examples: "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."countable

2. (pathology, countable) A sore or open wound caused by chafing, which may become infected, as with a blister.Examples: "And remember perfectly well his revolving eyes and his awkwardness, / And remember putting plasters on the galls of his neck and ankles;"countable

3. (figurative, uncountable) A feeling of exasperation.Examples: "Thou ſhalt be leader of this thouſand horſe, Whoſe foming galle with rage and high diſdaine, Haue ſworne the death of wicked Tamburlaine."; "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."; "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"figurativelyuncountable

4. (countable, technical) A pit on a surface being cut caused by the friction between the two surfaces exceeding the bond of the material at a point.countable

1. (ergative) To chafe, to rub or subject to friction; to create a sore on the skin.Examples: "[…] 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."ergative

2. (transitive, figurative) To bother or trouble.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."; "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."figurativelytransitive

3. (transitive, figurative) To harass, to harry, often with the intent to cause injury.Examples: "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 destined to gall the enemys left flank and rear."figurativelytransitive

4. (transitive, figurative) To exasperate.Examples: "Metrinko was hungry, but he was galled by how self-congratulatory his captors seemed, how generous and noble and proudly Islamic."figurativelytransitive

5. (transitive, technical) To cause pitting on a surface being cut from the friction between the two surfaces exceeding the bond of the material at a point.Examples: "Improper cooling and a dull milling cutter on titanium can gall the surface."transitive

6. (intransitive, obsolete, rare) To scoff; to jeer.Examples: "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"intransitiveobsoleterare

1. (phytopathology) 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).Examples: "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."

1. (transitive) To impregnate with a decoction of gallnuts in dyeing.Examples: "Raw silk is not galled, it is dyed at once in the black without any preparation : the liquor should be hot"transitive