gallery

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A roofed promenade, especially one extending along the wall of a building and supported by arches or columns on the outer side.
2. n. A long enclosed passage, such as a hallway or corridor.
3. n. A narrow balcony, usually having a railing or balustrade, along the outside of a building.
4. n. A projecting or recessed passageway along an upper story on the interior or exterior of a large building, generally marked by a colonnade or arcade.
5. n. Such a passageway situated over the aisle of a church and opening onto the nave. Also called tribune².
6. n. Southwestern Gulf States See veranda.
7. n. An upper section, often with a sloping floor, projecting from the rear or side walls of a theater or an auditorium to provide additional seating.
8. n. The seats in such a section, usually cheaper than those on the main floor.
9. n. The cheapest seats in a theater, generally those of the uppermost gallery.
10. n. The audience occupying a gallery or cheap section of a theater.
11. n. A large audience or group of spectators, as at a tennis or golf match.
12. n. The general public, usually considered as exemplifying a lack of discrimination or sophistication: accused the administration of playing to the gallery on the defense issue.
13. n. A building, an institution, or a room for the exhibition of artistic work.
14. n. An establishment that displays and sells works of art.
15. n. A photographer's studio.
16. n. A collection; an assortment: The trial featured a gallery of famous and flamboyant witnesses.
17. n. An underground tunnel or passageway, as in a cave or one dug for military or mining purposes.
18. n. A passage made by a tunneling insect or animal.
19. n. Nautical A platform or balcony at the stern or quarters of some early sailing ships.
20. n. A decorative upright trimming or molding along the edge of a table top, tray, or shelf.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An apartment of much greater length than breadth, serving as a passage of communication between the different rooms of a building, or used for the reception of pictures, statues, armor, etc.; a corridor; a passage.
2. n. Hence A room or building for the exhibition of works of art, or, by extension, a collection of such works for exhibition.
3. n. A platform projecting from the interior walls of a building, supported by piers, pillars, brackets, or consoles, and overlooking the main floor, as in a church, theater, or public library.
4. n. A narrow passage, open at least on one side, and often treated as a decorative feature, on the exterior or interior walls of an edifice, entering into the architectural design and at the same time affording communication between different parts, or facilities for keeping the building in repair. The name is sometimes given, by extension, to similar features intended only for ornament, and not affording a means of communication. Such galleries are usual in medieval churches.
5. n. The persons occupying the gallery at a theater.
6. n. An ornamental walk or inclosure in a garden, sometimes formed by trees or shrubs.
7. n. An underground passage. Specifically— A horizontal or inclined subterranean passage, whether cut in the soil or built in masonry, connecting different parts of a fortification, or a fortification with a mine or series of mines. In military engineering a gallery is an underground passage whose dimensions exceed 3 by 4 feet; when of less size, it is called a branch or branch gallery. See scarp gallery (under scarp) and counterscarp gallery (under counterscarp).
8. n. In zoology, a long narrow excavation of any kind made by an animal, as the underground passages dug by a mole, the boring of an insect, etc.
9. n. Nautical, a frame like a balcony projecting from the stern and quarters of a ship. The part at the stern is called the stern-gallery, that at the quarters the quarter-gallery.
10. n. In furniture-making, a small ornamental parapet or railing running along the edge of the top of a table, shelf of a cabinet, or the like, intended to prevent objects from being pushed off. In decorated furniture of the eighteenth century the galleries were an important feature. They were commonly of gilt bronze.
11. n. By extension, any company or group of interested spectators, as at a golf-match: a forced use.
12. n. Specifically, in écarté, spectators who are betting on either player and are allowed to offer suggestions.
13. n. A veranda; a piazza.
14. n. In a lamp-burner, the ring which supports the lamp-shade.

Wiktionary

1. n. An institution, building, or room for the exhibition and conservation of works of art.
2. n. An establishment that buys, sells, and displays works of art.
3. n. Uppermost seating area projecting from the rear or side walls of a theater, concert hall, or auditorium.
4. n. A roofed promenade, especially one extending along the wall of a building and supported by arches or columns on the outer side
5. n. as a whole, the spectators of an event.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A long and narrow corridor, or place for walking; a connecting passageway, as between one room and another; also, a long hole or passage excavated by a boring or burrowing animal.
2. n. A room for the exhibition of works of art; ; hence, also, a large or important collection of paintings, sculptures, etc.
3. n. A long and narrow platform attached to one or more sides of public hall or the interior of a church, and supported by brackets or columns; -- sometimes intended to be occupied by musicians or spectators, sometimes designed merely to increase the capacity of the hall.
4. n. (Naut.) A frame, like a balcony, projecting from the stern or quarter of a ship, and hence called stern gallery or quarter gallery, -- seldom found in vessels built since 1850.
5. n. (Fort.) Any communication which is covered overhead as well as at the sides. When prepared for defense, it is a defensive gallery.
6. n. (Mining) A working drift or level.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. spectators at a golf or tennis match
2. n. a porch along the outside of a building (sometimes partly enclosed)
3. n. a long usually narrow room used for some specific purpose
4. n. narrow recessed balcony area along an upper floor on the interior of a building; usually marked by a colonnade
5. n. a covered corridor (especially one extending along the wall of a building and supported with arches or columns)
6. n. a room or series of rooms where works of art are exhibited
7. n. a horizontal (or nearly horizontal) passageway in a mine