1781. G. Parker, View of Society, i., 207. A compound of Player, Soldier, Stroller, Sailor, and Tinker! An odd gallimaufry!
1860. Haliburton (Sam Slick), The Season Ticket, No. 7. This portion of my journal, which includes a variety of topics and anecdotes, some substantial like solid meat, some savoury as spicy vegetable ingredients, and some fragments to swell the bulk, which, though not valuable as materials, help to compound the gallimaufry.
2. (old).—A hodge-podge of scraps and leavings.
1724. Coles, Eng. Dict.; 1728. Bailey, Eng. Dict.; 1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue; 1811. Lexicon Balatronicum.
3. A mistress.
1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, ii., 1. He loves thy gallymawfry; Ford, perpend.
4. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
Gall, subs. (common).—Effrontery;
cheek (q.v.); brass (q.v.);
e.g., 'Ain't he got a gall on
him?'
1789. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd Ed.), s.v. His gall is not yet broken, a saying used in prisons of a man just brought in who appears melancholy and dejected, [i.e., 'He is not yet embittered enough to care for nothing, and meet everything with a front of brass.']
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
a 1891. New York Sun (quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant, s.v.). 'What do you think he had the gall to do to-day?' Brown: 'He has the gall to do anything.' Dumley: 'He asked me to drink with him; but he'll never repeat the impudence.'
Gallant, subs. (old).—A dandy
(q.v.); a ladies' man; a lover;
a cuckold-maker, whether in
posse or in esse (Shakspeare).
1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, ii. One that is well-nigh worn to pieces with age to show himself a young gallant!
1598. Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV., ii., 4. Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to you.
1663. Dryden, The Wild Gallant [Title.]
1690. B.E., A New Dict. Gallant a very fine man; also a Man of Metal, or a brave Fellow; also one that Courts, or keeps, or is Kept by, a Mistress.
1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iv., 110 There's never a gallant but sat at her hand.
1751-4. Jortin, Eccles. Hist. (quoted in Encyclopædic Dict.). As to Theodora, they who had been her gallants when she was an actress, related that daemons, or nocturnal spirits, had often driven them away to lie with her themselves.
Adj. (old).—(1). Valiant (2) showy; (3) amorous.
1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 40. O London is a fine town, and a gallant city.
Verb. (old).—To sweetheart; to squire; to escort; to pursue or to enjoy.
To Gallant a Fan. verb. phr. (old).—To break with design, to afford an opportunity of presenting a better.—B. E. (1690).
Gallant Fiftieth, subs. phr.
(military).—The Fiftieth Foot.
[For its share in Vimiera, 1808.]
Also, blind half hundred
(q.v.); and dirty half
hundred (q.v.).
Gallantry, subs. (1). Sparkishness
(q.v.); dandyism; (2) the
habit, or pursuit, of the sexual
favour. A life of gallantry
= a life devoted to the other
sex.
