GALL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does gall mean? 

• GALL (noun)
  The noun GALL has 6 senses:

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

2. a skin sore caused by chafing

3. abnormal swelling of plant tissue caused by insects or microorganisms or injury

4. a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will

5. a digestive juice secreted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder; aids in the digestion of fats

6. the trait of being rude and impertinent; inclined to take liberties

  Familiarity information: GALL used as a noun is common.

• GALL (verb)
  The verb GALL has 2 senses:

1. become or make sore by or as if by rubbing

2. irritate or vex

  Familiarity information: GALL used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GALL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

gall; saddle sore

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)

Sense 2

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 3

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 4

Meaning:

A feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

bitterness; gall; rancor; rancour; resentment

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 5

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

bile; gall

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

digestive fluid; digestive juice (secretions that aid digestion)

Sense 6

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

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

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)

• GALL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they gall    ... he / she / it galls   
Past simple: galled   
Past participle: galled   
-ing form: galling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Become or make sore by or as if by rubbing

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

chafe; fret; gall

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Irritate or vex

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

gall; irk

Context example:

It galls me that we lost the suit

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)

 Context examples 

Small motile rod bacteria that can reduce nitrates and cause galls on plant stems.

(Agrobacterium, NCI Thesaurus)

A tube that carries bile from the gall bladder.

(Cystic duct, NCI Dictionary)

Can anything be more galling to the spirit of a man, continued John, than to see his younger brother in possession of an estate which might have been his own?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The NMT gene is overexpressed in several types of cancer including brain, colorectal and gall bladder tumors.

(NMT2 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

The mildness of my nature had fled, and all within me was turned to gall and bitterness.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

“Is that where the shoe galls?” cried the bowman, and laughed aloud.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It ends where the cystic duct from the gall bladder joins it to form the common bile duct.

(Common hepatic duct, NCI Dictionary)

It is comprised of the common bile duct that connects the liver and gall bladder to the small intestine and the cystic duct that connects the gall bladder to the common bile duct.

(Biliary tract, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

From that moment my state of mind changed; the fetters dissolved and dropped from every faculty, leaving nothing of bondage but its galling soreness—which time only can heal.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A. tumefaciens is commonly found in soil and around the root surfaces of plants and is the causative agent of crown gall disease.

(Agrobacterium tumefaciens, NCI Thesaurus)