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
-
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
2
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.
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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Stump Speech: Tree Terminology
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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:
Then it has the gall to call it a win for us.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
They can range from nausea through to hair loss to more serious and rare complications like kidney issues and gall stones.
From BBC ● May 16, 2026
And then he has the gall to justify his expenses by saying that we do need two cars.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2025
Tucked into the speeches lauding Lee’s accomplishments, more than one supporter called out Taylor for having the gall to go after her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2025
But Fernanda felt so moved that she thought she would go mad when Meme awoke at midnight with her head splitting with pain and drowning in vomited gall.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Sandy McCook, chairman of Nethy Community Council, said he had witnessed a "major flare-up" on Mam Suim, Craig nan Gall and into Strath Nethy on Thursday evening.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 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
When Mr. Gall died six months ago, leaving behind only a sister in Vienna, his estate included diverse treasures characteristic of a life well lived.
From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2024
Gall said it was important to consider the effect of cleaning solutions available to the average person.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 2, 2024
“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
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
One gall. makes 51 galls. sufficient for 160 to 200 square yards.
From Roses and Rose Growing by Rose Georgina Kingsley
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
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
What galls her is that “it’s so often the case that a person with a disability has to make themselves indigent in order to qualify for what they need,” Smith said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2024
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
Eiseman was familiar with galls long before writing his first book, particularly the common ones referred to as “oak apples,” for their large size and roughly spherical shape.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 2, 2022
One common symptom is hyperplasia, the abnormal proliferation of cells that causes the appearance of plant tumors known as galls.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
To wear a false name galls me, but nothing else would save me, or get me dear across the width of Orgoreyn to the coast of the Western Sea.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
What galled her most: the bruin stole her favorite biscotti.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Still, the 32-hour workweek has galled some taxpayers, said Royce Meyerott, a resident active in local debates.
From Seattle Times ● May 26, 2024
All these decades later, a wide swath of the public today continues to be baffled and occasionally galled by Pollock, just as it didn’t get Serra for years.
From New York Times ● Mar. 27, 2024
His new coach with the Clippers, Tyronn Lue, called it a performance that left him “intrigued by what I saw” — and just as galled by what he didn’t.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2023
It galled me, not being able to recall its real name, as I had read it in Rhetoric and Logic just a few days ago.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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
The loss of Shazeer is particularly galling as it is the second time he has left Google.
From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026
And that’s not even the most galling part.
From Slate ● May 19, 2026
It has been particularly galling, Williamson said, because "confidence was starting to build a little bit" in the sector.
From BBC ● Mar. 16, 2026
Most galling to me was when she turned down an opportunity to go to an Ivy League business school after college, deciding that it would be too much work and therefore no fun.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
