Gally
adj, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Archaic form of galley. alt-of, archaic
"In the Year 1746, an Indian of Buenos Ayres having been condemned to the Gallies at Cadiz, proposed to the Governor to purchase his Liberty by exposing his Life at a public Festival."
- 2 Diminutive of gal (“girl”). diminutive, form-of, no-plural
- 1 To frighten, spook; to appall; to worry. UK, dialectal
"April 8 1700, Tom Brown, letter to Mr. Briscoe in Covent-Garden The next Day being Sunday, call'd by the Natives of this Country Maze Sunday, (and indeed not without some Reason, for the People look'd as if they were gallied) […]"
- 1 Characterised by or resembling gall; bitter.
"For by the Dart, which is likewise a pipe, is made a deep passage into the skin, and then by the anger of the Fly, is his gally poisonous liquor injected […]."
Example
More examples"In the Year 1746, an Indian of Buenos Ayres having been condemned to the Gallies at Cadiz, proposed to the Governor to purchase his Liberty by exposing his Life at a public Festival."
Etymology
From Middle English gally, from Old English gealliġ (“sour, sharp, bitter, sad”), equivalent to gall + -y.
See gallow (transitive verb).
From gal + -y.
More for "gally"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.