gall

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. See bile.
2. n. Bitterness of feeling; rancor.
3. n. Something bitter to endure: the gall of defeat.
4. n. Outrageous insolence; effrontery.
5. n. A skin sore caused by friction and abrasion: a saddle gall.
6. n. Exasperation; vexation.
7. n. The cause of such vexation.
8. v. To make (the skin) sore by abrasion; chafe.
9. v. To damage or break the surface of by or as if by friction; abrade: the bark of saplings galled by improper staking. See Synonyms at chafe.
10. v. To irk or exasperate; vex: It galled me to have to wait outside.
11. v. To become irritated, chafed, or sore.
12. n. An abnormal swelling of plant tissue caused by insects, microorganisms, or external injury.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The bitter secretion of the liver: same as bile, 1. See also ox-gall. In the authorized version of the Old Testament gall is used to translate two Hebrew words, one signifying animal gall, and the other a vegetable poison the nature of which is involved in uncertainty. In Turkey the gall of the carp is used as a green pigment and in staining paper.
2. n. Hence—2. Bitterness of feeling; rancor; malignity; hate.
3. n. The gall-bladder.
4. n. [Cf. bile, 2.] Impudence; effrontery; cheek. [Local, slang.]
5. n. The scum of melted glass.
6. n. A sore on the skin, caused by fretting or rubbing; an excoriation.
7. n. A fault, imperfection, or blemish. Halliwell. [Prov. Eng.]
8. n. In stone- and marble-cutting, a hollow made in the surface of a slab by changing the direction of the cut.
9. n. A spot where grass, corn, or trees have failed. Halliwell (spelled gaul).
10. n. In the southern United States, a low spot, as near the mouth of a river, where the soil under the matted surface has been washed away, or has been so exhausted that nothing will grow on it. See bay-gall.
11. To fret and wear away, as the skin, by friction; excoriate; break the skin of by rubbing: as, a saddle galls the back of a horse.
12. To impair the surface of by rubbing; wear away: as, to gall a mast or a cable.
13. To fret; vex; irritate: as, to be galled by sarcasm.
14. To harass; distress: as, the troops were galled by the shot of the enemy.
15. To fret; be or become chafed.
16. To act in a galling manner; make galling or irritating remarks.
17. n. A vegetable excrescence produced by the deposit of the egg of an insect in the bark or leaves of a plant, ordinarily due to the action of some virus deposited by the female along with the egg, but often to the irritation of the larva. Galls made by Cynipidæ are of the former kind; but some other hymenopters, as certain saw-flies, and many lepidopters, dipters, coleopters, and hemipters are also gall-makers. The galls of commerce are produced by a species of Cynips which deposits its eggs in the tender shoots of the Quercus Lusitanica (Q. infectoria), a species of oak abundant in Asia Minor, Syria, Persia, etc. Galls are inodorous, and have a nauseously bitter and astringent taste. They are nearly spherical, and vary from the size of a pea to that of a hazelnut. When good, they are of a blue, black, or deep-olive color. They are also termed nutgalls or gallnuts, and are known in commerce by the names of white, green, and blue. The two latter kinds are the best. The chief products of galls are tannin or gallotannic acid, of which the best galls yield from 60 to 70 per cent. Galls from other species of oak, as well as from other kinds of trees, are met with in commerce and are used for dyeing and tanning, as tamarisk-galls from Tamarix orientalis, Chinese galls from Rhus semialata, and Bokhara galls from various species of Pistacia. These galls are of very various forms and sizes.
18. n. An excrescence on or under the skin of a mammal or a bird, produced by the puncture of an acarid or of an insect of the dipterous genus Œstrus. Encyc. Brit.
19. n. A distortion in a plant caused by a species of parasitic fungus.
20. To impregnate with a decoction of galls.
21. n. A long space without weft in a piece of cloth.
22. n. A small silver coin of Cambodia, worth about fourpence.

Wiktionary

1. n. anatomy, obsolete, uncountable Bile, especially that of an animal; the greenish, profoundly bitter-tasting fluid found in bile ducts and gall bladders, structures associated with the liver.
2. n. anatomy The gall bladder.
3. n. uncountable, obsolete Great misery or physical suffering, likened to the bitterest-tasting of substances.
4. n. countable A bump-like imperfection resembling a gall.
5. n. uncountable A feeling of exasperation.
6. n. uncountable Impudence or brazenness; temerity, chutzpah.
7. n. medicine, obsolete, countable A sore or open wound caused by chafing, which may become infected, as with a blister.
8. n. countable A sore on a horse caused by an ill-fitted or ill-adjusted saddle; a saddle sore.
9. n. countable A pit caused on a surface being cut caused by the friction between the two surfaces exceeding the bond of the material at a point.
10. v. transitive To trouble or bother.
11. v. To harass, to harry, often with the intent to cause injury.
12. v. To chafe, to rub or subject to friction; to create a sore on the skin.
13. v. To exasperate.
14. v. To cause pitting on a surface being cut from the friction between the two surfaces exceeding the bond of the material at a point.
15. n. countable A blister or tumor-like growth found on the surface of plants, caused by burrowing of insect larvae into the living tissues, especially that of the common oak gall wasp (Cynips quercusfolii).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Physiol.) 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. n. The gall bladder.
3. n. Anything extremely bitter; bitterness; rancor.
4. n. Slang Impudence; brazen assurance.
5. n. (Zoöl.) 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.
6. v. (Dyeing) To impregnate with a decoction of gallnuts.
7. v. 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
8. v. To fret; to vex.
9. v. To injure; to harass; to annoy.
10. v. rare To scoff; to jeer.
11. n. A wound in the skin made by rubbing.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. abnormal swelling of plant tissue caused by insects or microorganisms or injury
2. v. irritate or vex
3. n. an open sore on the back of a horse caused by ill-fitting or badly adjusted saddle
4. v. become or make sore by or as if by rubbing
5. n. the trait of being rude and impertinent; inclined to take liberties
6. n. a skin sore caused by chafing
7. n. a digestive juice secreted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder; aids in the digestion of fats
8. n. a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will