Category:Gall

Gall, n.Etym: [OE. galle, gal, AS. gealla; akin to D. gal, OS. & OHG. galla, Icel. gall, SW. galla, Dan. galde, L. fel, Gr. yellow. Yellow, and cf. Choler]

1. (Physiol.)

Defn: The bitter, alkaline, viscid fluid found in the gall bladder, beneath the liver. It consists of the secretion of the liver, or bile, mixed with that of the mucous membrane of the gall bladder.

2. The gall bladder.

3. Anything extremely bitter; bitterness; rancor. He hath. . . compassed me with gall and travail. Lam. iii. 5. Comedy diverted without gall. Dryden.

4. Impudence; brazen assurance. [Slang] Gall bladder (Anat.), the membranous sac, in which the bile, or gall, is stored up, as secreted by the liver; the cholecystis. See Illust. of Digestive apparatus. -- Gall duct, a duct which conveys bile, as the cystic duct, or the hepatic duct. -- Gall sickness, a remitting bilious fever in the Netherlands. Dunglison. -- Gall of the earth (Bot.), an herbaceous composite plant with variously lobed and cleft leaves, usually the Prenanthes serpentaria.

gall Gall, n. Etym: [F. galle, noix de galle, fr. L. galla.] (Zoöl.)

Defn: An excrescence of any form produced on any part of a plant by insects or their larvae. They are most commonly caused by small Hymenoptera and Diptera which puncture the bark and lay their eggs in the wounds. The larvae live within the galls. Some galls are due to aphids, mites, etc. See Gallnut.

Note: The galls, or gallnuts, of commerce are produced by insects of the genus Cynips, chiefly on an oak (Quercus infectoria or Lusitanica) of Western Asia and Southern Europe. They contain much tannin, and are used in the manufacture of that article and for making ink and a black dye, as well as in medicine. Gall insect (Zoöl.), any insect that produces galls. -- Gall midge (Zoöl.), any small dipterous insect that produces galls. -- Gall oak, the oak (Quercus infectoria) which yields the galls of commerce. -- Gall of glass, the neutral salt skimmed off from the surface ofmelted crown glass;- called also glass gall and sandiver. Ure. -- Gall wasp. (Zoöl.) See Gallfly.

gall Gall, v. t. (Dyeing)

Defn: To impregnate with a decoction of gallnuts. Ure.

gall Gall, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Galled; p. pr. & vb. n. Galling.] Etym: [OE. gallen; cf. F. galer to scratch, rub, gale scurf, scab, G. galle a disease in horses' feet, an excrescence under the tongue of horses; of uncertain origin. Cf. Gall gallnut.]

1. To fret and wear away by friction; to hurt or break the skin of by rubbing; to chafe; to injure the surface of by attrition; as, a saddle galls the back of a horse; to gall a mast or a cable. I am lothe to gall a new-healed wound. Shak.

2. To fret; to vex; as, to be galled by sarcasm. They that are most galled with my folly, They most must laugh. Shak.

3. To injure; to harass; to annoy; as, the troops were galled by the shot of the enemy. In our wars against the French of old, we used to gall them with our longbows, at a greater distance than they could shoot their arrows. Addison.

gall Gall, v. i.

Defn: To scoff; to jeer. [R.] Shak.

gall Gall, n.

Defn: A wound in the skin made by rubbing.

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary.

Gall - (1.) Heb. mererah, meaning "bitterness" (Job 16:13); i.e., the bile secreted in the liver. This word is also used of the poison of asps (Job 20:14), and of the vitals, the seat of life (Job 20:25). (2.) Heb. rosh. In Deuteronomy 32:33 and Job 20:16 it denotes the poison of serpents. In Hosea 10:4 the Hebrew word is rendered "hemlock." The original probably denotes some bitter, poisonous plant, most probably the poppy, which grows up quickly, and is therefore coupled with wormwood (Deuteronomy 29:18; Jeremiah 9:15; Lamentations 3:19). Compare Jeremiah 8:14; Jeremiah 23:15, "water of gall," Gesenius, "poppy juice;" others, "water of hemlock," "bitter water." Gr. chole (Matthew 27:34), the Hebrew rosh in Psalms 69:21, which foretells our Lord's sufferings. The drink offered to our Lord was vinegar (made of light wine rendered acid, the common drink of Roman soldiers) "mingled with gall," or, according to Mark (Mark 15:23), "mingled with myrrh;" both expressions meaning the same thing, namely, that the vinegar was made bitter by the infusion of wormwood or some other bitter substance, usually given, according to a merciful custom, as an anodyne to those who were crucified, to render them insensible to pain. Our Lord, knowing this, refuses to drink it. He would take nothing to cloud His faculties or blunt the pain of dying. He chooses to suffer every element of woe in the bitter cup of agony given Him by the Father (John 18:11).