G – Gant

G

G, the seventh letter and the fifth articulation of the English Alphabet, is derived to us, through the Latin and Greek, from the Assyrian languages; it being found in the Chaldee, Syriac, Hebrew, Samaritan, Phenician, Ethiopic and Arabic. In the latter language, it is called giim or jim; ; but in the others, gimel, gomal or gamal, that is camel, from its shape. which resembles the neck of that animal, at least in the Chaldee and Hebrew. It is the third letter in the Chaldee, Syriac, Hebrew, Samaritan and Greek; the fifth in the Arabic, and the twentieth in the Ethiopic. The early Latins used C for the Greek gamma, and hence C came to hold the third place in the order of the Alphabet; the place which gimel holds in the oriental languages. The two letters are primarily palatals, and so nearly allied in sound that they are easily convertible; and they have been reciprocally used the one for the other. But in the Assyrian languages; gimel had two sounds; one hard or close, as we pronounce the letter in gave, good; the other soft, or rather compound, as the English j or as ch in chase. In the Arabic, this letter has the sound of the English j or dzh, and this sound it has in many English words, as in genius, gem, ginger. It retains its hard sound in all cases, before a, o and u; but before e, i and y, its sound is hard or soft, as custom has dictated, and its different sounds are not reducible to rules. It is silent in some words before n, as in benign, condign, malign, campaign; but it resumes its sound inbenignityand malignity. G is mute before n in gnash; it is silent also in many words when united with h, as in bright, might, night, nigh, high. The Saxon g has in many words been softened or liquefied into y or ow; as Sax. daeg, gear, Eng. day, year; Sax. bugan, Eng. to Bow.

The Celtic nations had a peculiar manner of beginning the sound of u or w with the articulation g or rather prefixing this articulation to that vowel. Thus guard for ward, gwain for wain, guerre for war, gwell for well. Whether this g has been added by the Celtic races, or whether the Teutonic nations have lost it, is a question I have not examined with particular attention. As a numeral g was anciently used to denote 400, and with a dash over it g 40, 000. As an abbreviation, it stands for Gaius, Geelius, etc. In music, it is the mark of the treble cliff, and from its being placed at the head or marking the first sound in Guido's scale, the whole scale took the name, Gammut, from the Greek name of the letter.

Ga

GA, in Gothic, is a prefix, answering to ge in Saxon and other Teutonic languages. It sometimes has the force of the Latin cum or con, as in gawithan, to conjoin. But in most words it appears to have no use, and in modern English it is entirely lost. Y-cleped, in which ge is changed into y, is the last word in which the English retained this prefix.

Gab

GAB, noun The mouth; as in the phrase, the gift of the gab that is, loquaciousness. But the word is so vulgar as rarely to be used.

Gabardine

GAB'ARDINE, noun A coarse frock or loose upper garment; a mean dress.

Gabble

GAB'BLE, verb intransitive [Eng. to gibe.]

1. To prate; to talk fast, or to talk without meaning.

Such a rout, and such a rabble,

Run to hear Jack Pudding gabble

2. To utter inarticulate sounds with rapidity; as gabbling fowls.

GAB'BLE, noun Loud or rapid talk with meaning.

1. Inarticulate sounds rapidly uttered, as of fowls.

Gabbler

GAB'BLER, noun A prater; a noisy talker; one that utters inarticulate sounds.

Gabbling

GAB'BLING, participle present tense Prating; chattering; uttering unmeaning or inarticulate sounds.

Gabbro

GAB'BRO, noun In mineralogy, the name given by the Italians to the aggregate of diallage and saussurite. It is the euphotide of the French, and the verde di Corcisa duro of artists.

Gabel

GA'BEL, noun A tax, import or duty; usually an excise.

Gabeler

GA'BELER, noun A collector of the gabel or of taxes.

Gabion

GA'BION, noun In fortification, a large basket of wickerwork, of a cylindrical form; filled with earth, and serving to shelter men from an enemy's fire.

Gable

GA'BLE, noun The triangular end of a house or other building, from the cornice or eaves to the top. In America, it is usually called the gable-end.

Gabrielites

GA'BRIELITES, noun In ecclesiastical history, a sect of anabaptists in Pomerania, so called from one Gabriel Scherling.

Gabronite

GA'BRONITE, noun A mineral, supposed to be a variety of fettstein. It occurs in masses, whose structure is more or less foliated, or sometimes compact. Its colors are gray, bluish or greenish gray, and sometimes red.

Gad

GAD, noun

1. A wedge or ingot of steel.

2. A style or graver.

3. A punch of iron with a wooden handle, used by miners.

GAD, verb intransitive

1. To walk about; to rove or ramble idly or without any fixed purpose.

Give the water no passage, neither a wicked woman liberty to gad abroad.

2. To ramble in growth; as the gadding vine.

Gadder

GAD'DER, noun A rambler; one that roves about idly.

Gadding

GAD'DING, participle present tense Rambling; roving; walking about.

Gadfly

GAD'FLY, noun An insect of the genus Oestrus, which stings cattle, and deposits its eggs in their skin; called also the breeze.

Gadolinite

GADO'LINITE, noun A mineral, so called from Professor Gadolin, usually in amorphous masses of a blackish color, and having the appearance of vitreous lava. It contains a new earth called yttria.

Gadwall

GAD'WALL, noun A fowl of the genus Anas, inhabiting the north of Europe.

Gaelic

GA'ELIC

GAFF, noun

1. A harpoon.

2. A sort of boom or pole, used in small ships, to extend the upper edge of the mizen, and of those sails whose foremost edge is joined to the mast by hoops or lacings, and which are extended by a boom below, as the main-sail of a sloop.

Gaff

GAFF, n. 1. A harpoon.2. A sort of boom or pole, used in small ships, to extend the upper edge of the mizen, and of those sails whose foremost edge is joined to the mast by hoops or lacings, and which are extended by a boom below, as the main-sail of a sloop.

Gaffer

GAF'FER, noun [Heb. gebar, a man, vir.] A word or respect, which seems to have degenerated into a term of familiarity or contempt. [Little used.]

Gaffle

GAF'FLE, noun

1. An artificial spur put on cocks when the are set to fight.

2. A steel lever to bend cross-bows.

Gag

GAG, verb transitive

1. To stop the mouth by thrusting something into the throat, so as to hinder speaking.

2. To keck; to heave with nausea.

GAG, noun Something thrust into the mouth and throat to hinder speaking.

GAGE, noun [Eng. to wage.]

1. A pledge or pawn; something laid down or given as a security for the performance of some act to be done by the person depositing the thing, and which is to be forfeited by non-performance. It is used of a movable thing; not of land or other immovable.

There I throw my gage.

2. A challenge to combat; that is, a glove, a cap, a gauntlet, or the like, cast on the ground by the challenger, and taken up by the accepter of the challenge.

3. A measure, or rule of measuring; a standard. [See Gauge.]

4. The number of feet which a ship sinks in the water.

5. Among letter-founders, a piece of hard wood variously notched, used to adjust the dimensions, slopes, etc. of the various sorts of letters.

6. An instrument in joinery made to strike a line parallel to the straight side of a board.

A sliding-gage, a tool used by mathematical instrument makers for measuring and setting off distances.

Sea-gage, an instrument for finding the depth of the sea.

Tide-gage, an instrument for determining the highth of the tides.

Wind-gage, an instrument for measuring the force of the wind on any given surface.

Weather-gage, the windward side of a ship.

GAGE, verb transitive To pledge; to pawn; to give or deposit as a pledge or security for some other act; to wage or wager.

1. To bind by pledge, caution or security; to engage.

2. To measure; to take or ascertain the contents of a vessel, cask or ship; written also gauge.

Gage

GAGE, noun

1. A box or inclosure, made of boards, or with lattice work of wood, wicker or wire, for confining birds or beasts. For the confinement of the more strong and ferocious beasts, a cage is sometimes made of iron.

2. An inclosure made with pallisades for confining wild beasts.

3. A prison for petty criminals.

4. In carpentry, an outer work of timber, inclosing another within it; as the cage of a wind mill or of a stair case.

Gaged

GA'GED, participle passive Pledged; measured.

Gager

GA'GER, noun One who gages or measures the contents.

Gagger

GAG'GER, noun One that gags.

Gaggle

GAG'GLE, verb intransitive To make a noise like a goose.

Gaggling

GAG'GLING, noun The noise of geese.

Gaging

GA'GING, participle present tense Pledging; measuring the contents.

Gahnite

G'AHNITE, noun [from Gahn, the discoverer.] A mineral, called also automalite and octahedral corundum. It is always crystallized in regular octahedrons, or in tetrahedrons with truncated angles.

Gaily

GA'ILY, adverb [from gay, and better written gayly.]

1. Splendidly; with finery or showiness.

2. Joyfully; merrily.

Gain

GAIN, verb transitive [Heb. to gain to possess.]

1. To obtain by industry or the employment of capital; to get as profit or advantage; to acquire. Any industrious person may gain a good living in America; but it is less difficult to gain property, than it is to use it with prudence. Money at interest may gain five, six, or seven per cent.

What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Matthew 16:26.

2. To win; to obtain by superiority or success; as, to gain a battle or a victory; to gain a prize; to gain a cause in law.

3. To obtain; to acquire; to procure; to receive; as, to gain favor; to gain reputation.

For fame with toil we gain but lose with ease.

4. To obtain an increase of anything; as, to gain time.

5. To obtain or receive anything, good or bad; as, to gain harm and loss. Acts 27:21.

6. To draw into any interest or party; to win to one's side; to conciliate.

To gratify the queen, and gain the court.

If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. Matthew 18:15.

7. To obtain as a suitor.

8. To reach; to attain to; to arrive at; as, to gain the top of a mountain; to gain a good harbor.

To gain into, to draw or persuade to join in.

He gained Lepidus into his measures.

To gain over, to draw to another party or interest; to win over.

To gain ground, to advance in any undertaking; to prevail; to acquire strength or extent; to increase.

GAIN, verb intransitive To have advantage or profit; to grow rich; to advance in interest or happiness.

Thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by extortion. Ezekiel 22:13.

1. To encroach; to advance on; to come forward by degrees; with on; as, the ocean or river gains on the land.

2. To advance nearer; to gain ground on; with on; as, a fleet horse gains on his competitor.

3. To get ground; to prevail against or have the advantage.

The English have not only gained upon the Venetians in the Levant, but have their cloth in Venice itself.

4. To obtain influence with.

My good behavior had so far gained on the emperor, that I began to conceive hopes of liberty.

To gain the wind, in sea language, is to arrive on the windward side of another ship.

GAIN, noun Profit; interest; something obtained as an advantage.

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Philippians 3:7.

1. Unlawful advantage. 2 Corinthians 12:17.

2. Overplus in computation; any thing opposed to loss.

GAIN, noun In architecture, a beveling shoulder; a lapping of timbers, or the cut that is made for receiving a timber.

GAIN, adjective Handy; dexterous.

Gainable

GA'INABLE, adjective That may be obtained or reached.

Gainage

GA'INAGE, noun In old laws, the same as wainage, that is, guainage; the horses, oxen and furniture of the wain, or the instruments for carrying on tillage, which, when a villain was amerced, were left free, that cultivation might not be interrupted. The word signifies also the land itself, or the profit made by cultivation.

Gained

GA'INED, participle passive Obtained as profit or advantage; won; drawn over to a party; reached.

Gainer

GA'INER, noun One that gains or obtains profit, interest or advantage.

Gainful

GA'INFUL, adjective Producing profit or advantage; profitable; advantageous; advancing interest or happiness.

1. Lucrative; productive of money; adding to the wealth or estate.

Gainfully

GA'INFULLY, adverb With increase of wealth; profitably; advantageously.

Gainfulness

GA'INFULNESS, noun Profit; advantage.

Gaingiving

GA'INGIVING, noun [from the root of again, against, and give. See Gainsay.] A misgiving; a giving against or away. [Not used.]

Gainless

GA'INLESS, adjective Not producing gain; unprofitable; not bringing advantage.

Gainlessness

GA'INLESSNESS, noun Unprofitableness; want of advantage.

Gainly

GA'INLY, adverb Handily; readily; dextrously.

Gainsay

GAINSA'Y, verb transitive [Eng. against.] To contradict; to oppose in words; to deny or declare not to be true what another says; to controvert; to dispute; applied to persons, or to propositions, declarations or facts.

I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. Luke 21:15.

Gainsayer

GAINSA'YER, noun One who contradicts or denies what is alleged; an opposer. Titus 1:9.

Gainsaying

GAINSA'YING, participle present tense Contradicting; denying; opposing.

Gainst

'GAINST. [See Against.]

Gainstand

GA'INSTAND, verb transitive To withstand; to oppose; to resist.

Gainstrive

GA'INSTRIVE, verb intransitive To make resistance.

GA'INSTRIVE, verb transitive To withstand.

Gairish

GA'IRISH, adjective [Gr. proud, boasting.]

1. Gaudy; showy; fine; affectedly fine; tawdry.

Monstrous hats and gairish colors.

2. Extravagantly gay; flighty.

Fame and glory transport a man out of himself; it makes the mind loose and gairish

Gairishness

GA'IRISHNESS, noun Gaudiness; finery; affected or ostentatious show.

1. Flighty or extravagant joy, or ostentation.

Gait

GAIT, noun [This word is probably connected with go or gad.]

1. A going; a walk; a march; a way.

2. Manner of walking or stepping. Every man has his peculiar gait

Gaiter

GA'ITER, noun A covering of cloth for the leg.

Gala

GA'LA, noun A gala day is a day of pomp, show or festivity, when persons appear in their best apparel.

Galactite

GALAC'TITE, noun [Gr. milk.] A fossil substance resembling the morochthus or French chalk in many respects, but different in color. Immersed or triturated in water, it gives it the color of milk.

Galage

GALA'GE, noun A wooden shoe.

Galanga

GALAN'GA, noun A plant, species of the Maranta or Indian Arrow-Root, so called because the root is used to extract the virus communicated by poisoned arrows. This plant has thick, knotty, creeping roots, crowned with long, broad, arundinaceous leaves, with stalks half a yard high, terminated by bunches of monopetalous, ringent flowers.

Galangal

GALAN'GAL, noun Zedoary, a species of Kaempferia. It has tuberous, thick, oblong, fleshy roots, crowned with oval close-sitting leaves, by pairs, without footstalks.

Galatians

GALA'TIANS, noun Inhabitants of Galatia, in the Lesser Asia, said to be descendants of the Gauls. [See Paul's epistle to them.]

Galaxy

GAL'AXY, noun [Gr. milk; fair.]

1. The milky way; that long, white, luminous track which seems to encompass the heavens like a girdle. This luminous appearance is found by the telescope to be occasioned by a multitude of stars, so small as not to be distinguished by the naked eye.

2. An assemblage of splendid persons or things.

Galban

GAL'BAN

GAL'BANUM, noun [Heb.varied in orthography, from to milk.]

The concrete gummy resinous juice of an umbelliferous plant, called Ferula Africana, etc., and by Linne, Bubon galbanum, which grows in Syria, the East Indies and Ethiopia. This gum comes in pale-colored, semitransparent, soft, tenacious masses, of different shades, from white to brown. It is rather resinous than gummy, and has a strong unpleasant smell, with a bitterish warm taste. It is unctuous to the touch, and softens between the fingers. When distilled with water or spirit, it yields an essential oil, and by distillation in a retort without mixture, it yields an empyreumatic oil of a fine blue color, but this is changed in the air to a purple.

Galbanum

GAL'BANUM, n. [Heb.varied in orthography, from to milk.]

The concrete gummy resinous juice of an umbelliferous plant, called Ferula Africana, &c., and by Linne, Bubon galbanum, which grows in Syria, the East Indies and Ethiopia. This gum comes in pale-colored, semitransparent, soft, tenacious masses, of different shades, from white to brown. It is rather resinous than gummy, and has a strong unpleasant smell, with a bitterish warm taste. It is unctuous to the touch, and softens between the fingers. When distilled with water or spirit, it yields an essential oil, and by distillation in a retort without mixture, it yields an empyreumatic oil of a fine blue color, but this is changed in the air to a purple.

Gale

GALE, noun A current of air; a strong wind. The sense of this word is very indefinite. The poets use it in the sense of a moderate breeze of current of air, as a gentle gale A stronger wind is called a fresh gale

In the language of seamen, the word gale unaccompanied by an epithet, signifies a vehement wind, a storm or tempest. They say, the ship carried away her top-mast in a gale or gale of wind; the ship rode out the gale But the word is often qualified, as a hard or strong gale a violent gale A current of wind somewhat less violent is denominated a stiff gale A less vehement wind is called a fresh gale which is a wind not too strong for a ship to carry single reefed top-sails, when close hauled. When the wind is not so violent but that a ship will carry her top-sails a-trip or full spread, it is called a loom-gale.

GALE, verb intransitive In seamen's language, to sail, or sail fast.

Galea

GA'LEA, noun [Latin galea a helmet.] A genus of sea hedge-hogs.

Galeas

GAL'EAS, noun A Venetian ship, large, but low built, and moved both by oars and sails.

Galeated

GA'LEATED, adjective [Latin galeatus, from galea, a helmet.]

1. Covered as with a helmet.

2. In botany, having a flower like a helmet, as the monk's-hood.

Galeeto

GALEE'TO, noun A fish of the genus Blennius, of a greenish color, sometimes variegated with blue transverse lines, and like the eel, living many hours after being taken from the water.

Galena

GALE'NA, noun [Gr. tranquillity, so named from its supposed effects in mitigating the violence of disease.] Originally, the name of the theriaca.

1. Sulphuret of lead; its common color is that shining bluish gray, usually called lead gray; sometimes it is nearly steel gray. Its streak has a metallic luster, but its fine powder is nearly black. Its structure is commonly foliated, sometimes granular or compact, and sometimes striated or fibrous. It occurs in regular crystals, or more frequently massive.

Galenic

GALEN'IC

GALEN'ICAL, adjective Pertaining to or containing galena.

1. [from Galen, the physician.] Relating to Galen or his principles and method of treating diseases. The galenic remedies consist of preparations of herbs and roots, by infusion, decoction, etc. The chimical remedies consist of preparations by means of calcination, digestion, fermentation, etc.

Galenical

GALEN'ICAL, a. Pertaining to or containing galena. 1. [from Galen, the physician.] Relating to Galen or his principles and method of treating diseases. The galenic remedies consist of preparations of herbs and roots, by infusion, decoction, &c. The chimical remedies consist of preparations by means of calcination, digestion, fermentation, &c.

Galenism

GA'LENISM

GA'LENIST, noun A follower of Galen in the preparation of medicine and modes of treating diseases; opposed to the chimists.

Galerite

GA'LERITE, noun [Latin galerus, a hat or cap.] A genus of fossil shells.

Galic

GA'LIC, adjective [from Gael, Gaul, Gallia.] An epithet denoting what belongs to the Gaels, tribes of Celtic origin inhabiting the highlands of Scotland; as the Gaelic language.

GA'ELIC, noun The language of the highlanders of Scotland.

Galilean

GALILE'AN, noun A native or inhabitant of Galilee, in Judea. Also, one of a sect among the Jews, who opposed the payment of tribute to the Romans.

Galimatia

GALIMA'TIA, noun Nonsense.

Galiot

GAL'IOT, noun [Latin galea.]

1. A small galley, or sort of brigantine, built for chase. It is moved both by sails and oars, having one mast and sixteen or twenty seats for rowers.

2. galiot or galliott, a Dutch vessel, carrying a main-mast and a mizen-mast, and a large gaff main-sail.

Galipot

GAL'IPOT, noun A white resin or resinous juice which flows by incision from the pine tree, especially the maritime pine. galipot encrusts the wounds of fir trees during winter. It consists of resin and oil.

Gall

GALL, noun [Gr. probably from its color.]

1. In the animal economy, the bile, a bitter, a yellowish green fluid, secreted in the glandular substance of the liver. It is glutinous or imperfectly fluid, like oil.

2. Any thing extremely bitter.

3. Rancor; malignity.

4. Anger; bitterness of mind.

Gallant

GAL'LANT, adjective [Eng. could; Latin gallus, a cock.]

1. Gay; well dressed; showy; splendid; magnificent.

Neither shall gallant ships pass thereby. Isaiah 33:21.

The gay, the wise, the gallant and the grave.

[This sense is obsolete.]

2. Brave; high-spirited; courageous; heroic; magnanimous; as a gallant youth; a gallant officer.

3. Fine; noble.

4. Courtly; civil; polite and attentive to ladies; courteous.

GALLANT', noun A gay, sprightly man; a courtly or fashionable man.

1. A man who is polite and attentive to ladies; one who attends upon ladies at parties, or to places of amusement.

2. A wooer; a lover; a suitor.

3. In an ill sense, one who caresses a woman for lewd purposes.

GALLANT', verb transitive To attend or wait on, as a lady.

1. To handle with grace or in a modish manner; as, to gallant a fan.

Gallantly

GAL'LANTLY, adverb Gaily; splendidly.

1. Bravely; nobly; heroically; generously; as, to fight gallantly; to defend a place gallantly

Gallantness

GAL'LANTNESS, noun Elegance or completeness of an acquired qualification.

Gallantry

GAL'LANTRY, noun

1. Splendor of appearance; show; magnificence; ostentatious finery. [Obsolete or obsolescent.]

2. Bravery; courageousness; heroism; intrepidity. The troops entered the fort with great gallantry

3. Nobleness; generosity.

4. Civility or polite attentions to ladies.

5. Vicious love or pretensions to love; civilities paid to females for the purpose of winning favors; hence, lewdness; debauchery.

Gallate

GAL'LATE, noun [from gall.] A neutral salt formed by the gallic acid combined with a base.

Gallbladder

GALLBLADDER, noun A small membranous sack, shaped like a pear, which receives the bile from the liver by the cystic duct.

Galleass

GAL'LEASS. [See Galeas.]

Galled

GALL'ED, participle passive [See Gall, the verb.] Having the skin or surface worn or torn by wearing or rubbing; fretted; teased; injured; vexed.

Galleon

GAL'LEON, noun A large ship formerly used by the Spaniards, in their commerce with South America, usually furnished with four decks.

Galleot

GALLEOT, [See Galiot.]

Gallery

GAL'LERY, noun

1. In architecture, a covered part of a building, commonly in the wings, used as an ambulatory or place for walking.

2. An ornamental walk or apartment in gardens, formed by trees.

3. In churches, a floor elevated on columns and furnished with pews or seats; usually ranged on three sides of the edifice. A similar structure in a play-house.

4. In fortification, a covered walk across the ditch of a town, made of beams covered with planks and loaded with earth.

5. In a mine, a narrow passage or branch of the mine carried under ground to a work designed to be blown up.

6. In a ship, a frame like a balcony projecting from the stern or quarter of a ship of war or of a large merchantman. That part at the stern, is called the stern-gallery; that at the quarters, the quarter-gallery.

Galletyle

GAL'LETYLE, noun Gallipot.

Galley

GAL'LEY, noun plural galleys. [Latin galea. The Latin word signifies a helmet, the top of a mast, and a galley; and the name of this vessel seems to have been derived from the head-piece, or kind of basket-work, at mast-head.]

1. A low flat-built vessel, with one deck, and navigated with sails and oars; used in the Mediterranean. The largest sort of galleys, employed by the Venetians, are 162 feet in length, or 133 feet keel. They have three masts and thirty two banks of oars; each bank containing two oars, and each oar managed by six or seven slaves. In the fore-part they carry three small batteries of cannon.

2. A place of toil and misery.

3. An open boat used on the Thames by custom-house officers, press-gangs, and for pleasure.

4. The cook room or kitchen of a ship of war; answering to the caboose of a merchantman.

5. An oblong reverberatory furnace, with a row of retorts whose necks protrude through lateral openings.

Galley-Slave

GAL'LEY-SLAVE, noun A person condemned for a crime to work at the oar on board of a galley.

Galleyfoist

GAL'LEYFOIST, noun A barge of state.

Gallfly

GALL'FLY, noun The insect that punctures plants and occasions galls; the cynips.

Galliard

GAL'LIARD, adjective Gay; brisk; active.

GAL'LIARD, noun A brisk, gay man; also, a lively dance.

Galliardise

GAL'LIARDISE, noun Merriment; excessive gayety.

Galliardness

GAL'LIARDNESS, noun Gayety.

Gallic

GAL'LIC, adjective [From Gallia, Gaul.] Now pertaining to Gaul or France.

GAL'LIC, adjective [from gall.] Belonging to galls or oak apples; derived from galls; as the gallic acid.

Gallican

GAL'LICAN, adjective [Latin gallicus, from Gallia, Gaul.] Pertaining to Gaul or France; as the gallican church or clergy.

Gallicism

GAL'LICISM, noun A mode of speech peculiar to the French nation; an idiomatic manner of using words in the French language.

Galligaskins

GALLIGAS'KINS, noun Large open hose; used only in ludicrous language.

Gallimaufry

GAL'LIMAUFRY, noun A hash; a medley; a hodge-podge. [Little used.]

1. Any inconsistent or ridiculous medley.

2. A woman. [Not in used.]

Gallinaceous

GALLINA'CEOUS, adjective [Latin gallinaceus, from gallina, a hen, gallus, a cock, whose name is from crowing; Eng. to call.]

1. Designating that order of fowls called gallinoe, including the domestic fowls or those of the pheasant kind.

Gallinaceus Lapis, a glossy substance produced by volcanic fires; the lapis obsidianus of the ancients. A kind of it brought from Peru is of a beautiful black, or crow-color, like the gallinaco.

Galling

GALL'ING, participle present tense [See Gall, the verb.]

1. Fretting the skin; excoriating.

2. Adapted to fret or chagrin; vexing.

Gallinule

GAL'LINULE, noun [Latin gallinula, dim. of gallina, a hen.]

A tribe of fowls of the grallic order, included under the genus Fulica, with the coot.

Galliot

GALLIOT

GAL'LIPOT, noun A small pot or vessel painted and glazed, used by druggists and apothecaries for containing medicines.

Gallipot

GAL'LIPOT, n. A small pot or vessel painted and glazed, used by druggists and apothecaries for containing medicines.

Gallitzinite

GALLIT'ZINITE, noun Rutile, an ore of titanium.

Gallivat

GAL'LIVAT, noun A small vessel used on the Malabar coast.

Gallless

GALL'LESS, adjective [from gall.] Free from gall or bitterness.

Gallon

GAL'LON, noun [Law Latin galona.] A measure of capacity for dry or liquid things, but usually for liquids, containing four quarts. But the gallon is not in all cases of uniform contents or dimensions. The gallon of wine contains 231 cubic inches, or eight pounds avordupois of pure water. The gallon of beer and ale contains 281 cubic inches, or ten pounds three ounces and a quarter avordupois of water; and the gallon of corn, meal, etc., 272 1/4 cubic inches, or nine pounds thirteen ounces of pure water.

Galloon

GALLOON', noun A kind of close lace made of gold or silver, or of silk only.

Gallop

GAL'LOP, verb intransitive

1. To move or run with leaps, as a horse to run or move with speed.

But gallop lively down the western hill.

2. To ride with a galloping pace.

We galloped towards the enemy.

3. To move very fast; to run over.

Such superficial ideas he may collect in galloping over it.

GAL'LOP, noun The movement or pace of a quadruped, particularly of a horse, by springs, reaches or leaps. The animal lifts his fore feet nearly at the same time, and as these descend and are just ready to touch the ground, the hind feet are lifted at once. The gallop is the swiftest pace of a horse, but it is also a moderate pace, at the pleasure of a rider.

Galloper

GAL'LOPER, noun A horse that gallops; also, a man that gallops or makes haste.

1. In artillery, a carriage which bears a gun of a pound and a half ball. It has shafts so as to be drawn without a limbon, and it may serve for light three and six pounders.

Gallopin

GAL'LOPIN, noun A servant for the kitchen.

Gallow

GAL'LOW, verb transitive To fright or terrify.

Galloway

GAL'LOWAY, noun A horse or species of horses of a small size, bred in galloway in Scotland.

Gallowglass

GAL'LOWGLASS, noun An ancient Irish foot soldier.

Gallows

GAL'LOWS, noun singular. [Gallows is in the singular number and should be preceded by a, a gallows The plural is gallowses.]

1. An instrument of punishment whereon criminals are executed by hanging. It consists of two posts and a cross beam on the top, to which the criminal is suspended by a rope fastened round his neck.

2. A wretch that deserves the gallows [Not used.]

Gallowsfree

GAL'LOWSFREE, adjective Free from danger of the gallows.

Gallowtree

GAL'LOWTREE, noun The tree of execution.

Gallsickness

GALLSICKNESS, noun A remitting bilious fever in the Netherlands.

Gallstone

GALLSTONE, noun A concretion formed in the gallbladder.

GALL, noun [Latin galla.] A hard round excrescence on the oak tree in certain warm climates, said to be the nest of an insect called cynips. It is formed from the tear issuing from a puncture made by the insect, and gradually increased by accessions of fresh matter, till it forms a covering to the eggs and succeeding insects. Galls are used in making ink; the best are from Aleppo.

GALL, verb transitive

1. To fret and wear away by friction; to excoriate; to hurt or break the skin by rubbing; as, a saddle galls the back of a horse, or a collar his breast.

Tyrant, I well deserve thy galling chain.

2. To impair; to wear away; as, a stream galls the ground.

3. To tease; to fret; to vex; to chagrin; as, to be galled by sarcasm.

4. To wound; to break the surface of any thing by rubbing; as, to gall a mast or a cable.

5. To injure; to harass; to annoy. 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 long bows, at a greater distance than they could shoot their arrows.

GALL, verb intransitive To fret; to be teased.

GALL, noun A wound in the skin by rubbing.

Gally

GALL'Y, adjective Like gall; bitter as gall.

GAL'LY, noun A printer's frame or oblong square board with a ledge on three sides, into which types are emptied from the composing stick. It has a groove to admit a false bottom, called a gally-slice.

Gally-Worm

GAL'LY-WORM, noun An insect of the centiped kind, of several species.

Galoche

GALO'CHE, noun A patten, clog or wooden shoe, or a shoe to be worn over another shoe to keep the foot dry. It is written also galoshe.

Galsome

GALSOME, adjective gaul'som. [from gall.] Angry; malignant.

Galvanic

GALVAN'IC, adjective Pertaining to galvanism; containing or exhibiting it.

Galvanism

GAL'VANISM, noun [from Galvani of Bologna, the discover.]

Electrical phenomena in which the electricity is developed without the aid of friction, and in which a chimical action takes place between certain bodies.

Galvanism is heat, light, electricity and magnetism, united in combination or in simultaneous action; sometimes one and sometimes another of them predominating, and thus producing more or less all the effects of each: usual means of excitement, contact of dissimilar bodies, especially of metals and fluids.

Galvanist

GAL'VANIST, noun One who believes in galvanism; one versed in galvanism.

Galvanize

GAL'VANIZE, verb transitive To affect with galvanism.

Galvanologist

GALVANOL'OGIST, noun One who describes the phenomena of galvanism.

Galvanology

GALVANOL'OGY, noun [galvanism, and Gr. discourse.]

A treatise on galvanism, or a description of its phenomena.

Galvanometer

GALVANOM'ETER, noun [galvanism, and Gr. measure.]

An instrument or apparatus for measuring minute quantities of electricity, or the operations of galvanism.

Gamashes

GAMASH'ES, noun Short spatterdashes worn by plowmen.

Gambadoes

GAMBA'DOES, noun Spatterdashes.

Gambet

GAM'BET, noun A bird of the size of the greenshank, found in the Arctic sea, and in Scandinavia and Iceland.

Gamble

GAM'BLE, verb intransitive [from game.] To play or game for money or other stake.

GAM'BLE, verb transitive To gamble away, is to squander by gaming.

Bankrupts or sots who have gambled or slept away their estates.

Gambler

GAM'BLER, noun One who games or plays for money or other stake. Gamblers often or usually become cheats and knaves.

Gambling

GAM'BLING, participle present tense Gaming for money.

Gamboge

GAMBO'GE, noun A concrete vegetable juice or gum-resin. It is brought in orbicular masses or cylindrical rolls, from Cambaja, Cambodja, or Cambogia, in the E. Indies, whence its name. It is of a dense, compact texture, and of a beautiful reddish yellow. It is used chiefly as a pigment. Taken internally, it is a strong and harsh cathartic and emetic.

Gambol

GAM'BOL, verb intransitive

1. To dance and skip about in sport; to frisk; to leap; to play in frolic, like boys and lambs.

2. To leap; to start.

GAM'BOL, noun A skipping or leaping about in frolic; a skip; a hop; a leap; a sportive prank.

Gamboling

GAM'BOLING, participle present tense Leaping; frisking; playing pranks.

Gambrel

GAM'BREL, noun The hind leg of a horse. Hence, in America, a crooked stick used by butchers. A hipped roof is called a gambrel-roof.

GAM'BREL, verb transitive To tie by the leg.

Game

GAME, noun

1. Sport of any kind.

2. Jest; opposed to earnest; as, betwixt earnest and game [Not used.]

3. An exercise or play for amusement or winning a stake; as a game of cricket; a game of chess; a game of whist. Some games depend on skill; others on hazard.

4. A single match at play.

5. Advantage in play; as, to play the game into another's hand.

6. Scheme pursued; measures planned.

This seems to be the present game of that crown.

7. Field sports; the chase, falconry, etc.

8. Animals pursued or taken in the chase, or in the sports of the field; animals appropriated in England to legal sportsmen; as deer, hares, etc.

9. In antiquity, games were public diversions or contests exhibited as spectacles for the gratification of the people. These games consisted of running, leaping, wrestling, riding, etc. Such were the Olympic games, the Pythian, the Isthmian, the Nemean, etc., among the Greeks; and among the Romans, the Apollinarian, the Circensian, the Capitoline, etc.

10. Mockery; sport; derision; as, to make game of a person.

GAME, verb intransitive To play at any sport or diversion.

1. To play for a stake or prize; to use cards, dice, billiards or other instruments, according to certain rules, with a view to win money or other thing waged upon the issue of the contest.

2. To practice gaming.

Game-Egg

GA'ME-EGG, noun An egg from which a fighting cock is bred.

Gamecock

GA'MECOCK, noun A cock bred or used to fight; a cock kept for barbarous sport.

Gamekeeper

GA'MEKEEPER, noun One who has the care of game; one who is authorized to preserve beasts of the chase, or animals kept for sport.

Gamesome

GA'MESOME, adjective Gay; sportive; playful; frolicsome.

This gamesome humor of children.

Gamesomely

GA'MESOMELY, adverb Merrily; playfully.

Gamesomeness

GA'MESOMENESS, noun Sportiveness; merriment.

Gamester

GA'MESTER, noun

1. A person addicted to gaming; one who is accustomed to play for money or other stake, at cards, dice, billiards and the like; a gambler; one skilled in games.

It is as easy to be a scholar as a gamester

2. One engaged at play.

3. A merry, frolicsome person. [Not used.]

4. A prostitute. [Not in use.]

Gaming

GA'MING, participle present tense Playing; sporting; playing for money.

GA'MING, noun The act or art of playing any game in a context for a victory, or for a prize or stake.

1. The practice of using cards, dice, billiards and the like, according to certain rules, for winning money, etc.

Gaming-House

GA'MING-HOUSE, noun A house where gaming is practiced.

Gaming-Table

GA'MING-TABLE, noun A table appropriated to gaming.

Gammer

GAM'MER, noun The compellation of an old woman, answering to gaffer, applied to an old man.

Gammon

GAM'MON, noun

1. The buttock or thigh of a hog, pickled and smoked or dried; a smoked ham.

2. A game, called usually back-gammon, which see.

GAM'MON, verb transitive To make bacon; to pickle and dry in smoke.

1. To fasten a bowsprit to the stem of a ship by several turns of a rope.

GAM'MON, verb transitive In the game of back-gammon, the party that, by fortunate throws of the dice or by superior skill in moving, withdraws all his men from the board, before his antagonist has been able to get his men home and withdraw any of them from his table, gammons his antagonist.

Gammut

GAM'MUT, noun [from the Greek letter so named.]

1. A scale on which notes in music are written or printed, consisting of lines and spaces, which are named after the seven first letters of the alphabet.

2. The first or gravest note in Guido's scale of music, the modern scale.

Gan

GAN, a contraction of began, or rather the original simple word, Sax. gynnan, to begin.

Ganch

GANCH, verb transitive To drop from a high place on hooks, as the Turks do malefactors, by way of punishment.

Gander

GAN'DER, noun [Latin anser.] The male of fowls of the goose kind.

Gang

GANG, verb intransitive To go; to walk. [Local, or used only in ludicrous language.]

GANG, noun [G., a metallic vein, a streak in a mine.]

1. Properly, a going; hence, a number of going in company; hence, a company, or a number of persons associated for a particular purpose; as a gang of thieves.

2. In seamen's language, a select number of a ship's crew appointed on a particular service, under a suitable officer.

3. In mining, literally a course or vein, but appropriately the earthy, stony, saline or combustible substance which contains the ore of metals, or is only mingled with it, without being chemically combined. This is called the gang or matrix of the ore. It differs from a mineralizer, in not being combined with the metal.

[ This word, in the latter sense, is most unwarrantably and erroneously written gangue.]

Gangboard

GANG'BOARD, noun A board or plank with cleats for steps, used for walking into or out of a boat.

Gangdays

GANG'DAYS, noun Days or perambulation.

Ganghon

GANG'HON, noun A flower.

Ganglion

GANG'LION, noun In anatomy, a small circumscribed tumor, found in certain parts of the nervous system.

1. In surgery, a movable tumor formed on the tendons, generally about the wrist.

Gangrenate

GAN'GRENATE, verb transitive To produce a gangrene.

Gangrene

GAN'GRENE, noun [Latin gangroena.] A mortification of living flesh, or of some part of a living animal body. It is particularly applied to the first state of mortification, before the life of the part is completely extinct. When the part is completely dead, it is called sphacelus.

GAN'GRENE, verb transitive To mortify, or to begin mortification in.

GAN'GRENE, verb intransitive To become mortified.

Gangrenescent

GANGRENES'CENT, adjective Tending to mortification; beginning to corrupt or putrefy, as living flesh.

Gangrenous

GAN'GRENOUS, adjective Mortified; indicating mortification of living flesh.

Gangue

GANGUE, noun gang. [See Gang.] In mining, the earthy, stony, saline, or combustible substance, which contains the ore of metals, or is only mingled with it without being chimically combined, is called the gangue or matrix of the ore. It differs from a mineralizer, in not being combined with the metal.

Gangway

GANG'WAY, noun A passage, way or avenue into or out of any inclosed place, especially a passage into or out of a ship, or from one part of a ship to another; also, a narrow platform of planks laid horizontally along the upper part of a ship's side, from the quarter deck to the forecastle.

To bring to the gangway in the discipline of ships, is to punish a seaman by seizing him up and flogging him.

Gangweek

GANG'WEEK, noun Rogation week, when processions are made to lustrate or survey the bounds of parishes.

Ganil

GAN'IL, noun A kind of brittle limestone.

Gannet

GAN'NET, noun The Solan Goose, a fowl of the genus Pelicanus, about seven pounds in weight, with a straight bill, six inches long, and palmated feet. These fowls frequent the isles of Scotland in summer, and feed chiefly on herrings.

Gant

GANT, adjective gant Vacant; hollow; empty, as an animal after long fasting; hence, lean; meager; thin; slender.