gall
noun
gall
1 American
[gawl]
/ gɔl /
gall
2
American
[gawl]
/ gɔl /
verb (used with object)
-
galls,
present (3rd person singular)
-
galled,
past participle, past
-
galling
present participle
-
to vex or irritate greatly.
His arrogant manner galls me.
-
to make sore by rubbing; chafe severely.
The saddle galled the horse's back.
verb (used without object)
-
galls,
present (3rd person singular)
-
galled,
past participle, past
-
galling
present participle
-
to be or become chafed.
-
Machinery. (of either of two engaging metal parts) to lose metal to the other because of heat or molecular attraction resulting from friction.
-
Metallurgy. (of a die or compact in powder metallurgy) to lose surface material through adhesion to the die.
noun
-
something very vexing or irritating.
-
a state of vexation or irritation.
-
a sore on the skin, especially of a horse, due to rubbing; excoriation.
gall
3
American
[gawl]
/ gɔl /
noun
Gall
4
American
[gawl]
/ gɔl /
noun
gall
1
British
/ ɡɔːl /
noun
-
informal impudence
-
bitterness; rancour
-
something bitter or disagreeable
-
physiol an obsolete term for bile 1
-
an obsolete term for gall bladder
gall
2
British
/ ɡɔːl /
noun
-
a sore on the skin caused by chafing
-
something that causes vexation or annoyance
a gall to the spirits
-
irritation; exasperation
verb
-
pathol to abrade (the skin, etc) as by rubbing
-
(tr) to irritate or annoy; vex
gall.
3
British
abbreviation
gall
4
British
/ ɡɔːl /
noun
gall
Scientific
/ gôl /
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
gallsimple
-
gallssimple
-
have galledperfect
-
has galledperfect
-
am gallingprogressive
-
are gallingprogressive
-
is gallingprogressive
-
have been gallingperfect progressive
-
has been gallingperfect progressive
Past
-
galledsimple
-
had galledperfect
-
was gallingprogressive
-
were gallingprogressive
-
had been gallingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gall1
First recorded before 900; Middle English galle, gal “gallbladder; bitter taste; rancor; poison,” Old English gealla “bile”; cognate with German Galle; akin to Latin fel, Greek cholḗ, chólos “gall, bile”; gall 2 ( def. )
Origin of gall2
First recorded before 1000; Middle English gal(l)e, gaul(e) “sore (on the skin); stain, impurity; barren spot (in a field),” Old English gealla “an abrasion or sore (on a horse)”; possibly from Latin galla “nutgall”; possibly the same as gall 1 ( def. ), the senses developing from “bile” to “poison” to “(poisonous) sore” to “stain”; gall 3 ( def. )
Origin of gall3
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English galle, from Middle French, from Latin galla “gallnut”; see gall 2
Explanation
Gall describes something irritating, like someone very rude. If you barge into a bakery and cut in front of a sweet old lady, then you have gall. If someone has gall, they're irritating. In fact, as a verb, gall means "to irritate" like new tight jeans that gall your thighs. Gall is "bile," too, like what's in a gall bladder. Back in the days of Hippocrates, if the four humors of the body were out of whack, it affected your spirits. If you had too much bile, or gall, then you'd be aggressive or depressed. It's also a noun for "deep feeling of ill will."
Vocabulary lists containing gall
"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act I
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A Raisin in the Sun
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The Hunger Games
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The son must endure the gall of being mocked and seeing his mother importuned by greedy suitors who feast nightly on the family’s stores.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
And then he has the gall to justify his expenses by saying that we do need two cars.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2025
When Johnson underwent anesthesia for a gall bladder operation, Moyers was given responsibility to decide whether then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey should take over the president’s powers in the event of a crisis.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2025
She had half her pancreas, bile duct and gall bladder removed, along with part of her gut and stomach.
From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2025
“Well, Sarah is fun. I’m fun,” he has the gall to say.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
Spanish rider Enric Mas of Team Movistar maintained his 2min 6sec general classification lead on Felix Gall, with Primoz Roglic a further four seconds behind.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
The fall in exports to both China and the United States "is causing massive overcapacity across the entire German automotive industry," said EY auto industry expert Constantin M. Gall.
From Barron's ● Mar. 20, 2026
Gall said future studies on this subject will focus on additional surfaces common indoors and cleaning techniques to reduce PAHs, as well as work to understand the extent of possible health impacts from exposure.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 2, 2024
Makeover goals “There was a female audience that was missing, and potential for that,” says Gall of the Knopf/Doubleday Group.
From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2023
“So that’s what Gall did,” Grandpa Nyles said, pausing for a moment.
From "In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse" by Joseph Marshall III
"You laugh. You. Now that is gall. You fight like a hedgehog ..." "There was a knight once who couldn't see," Bran said stubbornly, as Ser Rodrik went on below.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
One gall. makes 51 galls. sufficient for 160 to 200 square yards.
From Roses and Rose Growing by Rose Georgina Kingsley
Wax Finishing.—Take ½ gall. of turpentine, 1½ lb. yellow beeswax, 1 lb. white beeswax, ½ lb. white rosin.
From French Polishing and Enamelling A Practical Work of Instruction by Richard Bitmead
For the commonest kind of work in black walnut a very cheap polish can be made in the following manner: Take 1 gall. of turpentine, 2 lb. pulverised asphaltum, 1 qt. boiled linseed-oil, 2 oz.
From French Polishing and Enamelling A Practical Work of Instruction by Richard Bitmead
Take 1/2 gall. of skimmed milk, 6 ozs. of lime newly slaked, 4 ozs. of poppy, linseed, or nut-oil, and 3 lbs. of Spanish white.
From Young's Demonstrative Translation of Scientific Secrets by Daniel Young
What galls me is the failure to identify one of the — certainly not the only — bedrock reasons some people go through life with little or no money: mismanagement.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 26, 2026
“It galls me that that gets forgotten, because he’s rewriting the history of what happened on those tapes.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2023
But as much as it galls me to admit it, these gems don't always hold up to adult scrutiny.
From Salon ● Nov. 29, 2022
Gall insects are everywhere: It is estimated that 1,000 species of gall wasps in North America are responsible for the galls on oaks alone.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 2, 2022
My own voice galls even me; it oppresses me like a silver fork scraped across porcelain.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
What galled her most: the bruin stole her favorite biscotti.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
He was galled that he was being asked to reconnect with a psychiatrist, saying that he would not have needed to do so if Keck had not dragged its feet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2023
The block on calls using the popular WhatsApp, FaceTime and Skype applications has particularly galled UAE residents who were separated from families and friends by restrictions during the pandemic.
From Reuters ● Sep. 29, 2021
The ban levied last week by a pair of the world’s richest and most powerful companies galled supporters of free elections and free expression.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 22, 2021
It galled her that Uncle Holt would ask my opinion about anything, let alone my own future.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
IBM’s current predicament is especially galling given it was once at the forefront of AI with Watson, a natural-language computer processing system that won “Jeopardy!”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
For rail passengers, it can be galling to hear or read that your train has been delayed, putting your journey, your day, back into a land of uncertainty.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
And that’s not even the most galling part.
From Slate ● May 19, 2026
To the U.A.E., this was especially galling because several OPEC+ states were routinely falling short of their production targets.
From Barron's ● May 4, 2026
That she was barred from some journeys and not others was increasingly galling.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
