Gallery, subs. (Winchester College).—A commoner bedroom. [From a tradition of galleries in Commoners.] See Gallery-Nymphs.
To play to the Gallery, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To act so as to win the applause of the vulgar: i.e., to abandon distinction and art for coarseness of means and cheapness of effect. Said indifferently of anyone in any profession who exerts himself to win the suffrages of the mob; as a political demagogue, a 'popular' preacher, a 'fashionable' painter, and so on.
1872. Standard, 23 Oct. 'New York Correspondence.' His dispatches were, indeed, too long and too swelling in phrase; for herein he was always playing to the galleries.
Hence, Gallery-hit, shot, stroke, etc. = a touch designed for, and exclusively addressed to, the non-critical.
To play the Gallery, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To make an audience; to applaud.
1870. Echo, 23 July, p. 5, c. 4. He seemed altogether a jovial, amusing sort of fellow, and as we were close by him, and constantly called in to play the gallery to his witty remarks, we asked him, when his friends left him, to join our party.
Gallery Nymph, subs. phr.
(Winchester College).—A housemaid.
See Gallery.
Galley—put a brass galley
down your back, verb. phr.
(printers').—An admonition to
appear before a principal; implying
that the galley will serve as a
screen.
Galley-foist, subs. (old).—The
state barge, used by the Lord
Mayor when he was sworn in at
Westminster.
1609. Ben Jonson, Silent Woman, iv., 2. Out of my doores, you sons of noise and tumult, begot on an ill May day, or when the galleyfoist is afloate to Westminster.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Galley-growler or -stoker,
subs. (nautical).—A loafer; a
malingerer (q.v.); a grumble-guts
(q.v.).
Galley-halfpenny, subs. (old).—A
base coin, tempus Henry IV.
[So called because it was commonly
imported in the Genoese
galleys. See Leake, English
Money, p. 129; Ruding, Annals
of Coinage, i., 250; and Stow,
Survey (ed. 1842) p. 50.]
Galley-Slave, subs. (printers').—A
compositor. [From the oblong
tray whereon the matter from the
composing stick is arranged in
column or page.] For synonyms,
see Donkey.
1683. Moxon, s.v.
Galleywest, adj. or adv.
(American).—An indefinite superlative.
Cf., About-east.
1884. Clemens, (M. Twain) Huck. Finn, xxxvii., 382. Then she grabbed up the basket and slammed it across the house, and knocked the cat galleywest.
1887. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin (quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant). I'll be darned if this establishment of yours, Hunse, don't knock any one of them galley. west!—galleywest, sir, that's what it does.
Galley-yarn (or news), subs.
phr. (nautical).—A lying story;
a swindle or take-in (q.v.).
Frequently abbreviated to 'G.Y.'
1884. Henley and Stevenson, Admiral Guinea, iii., 4. What? lantern and cutlass yours; you the one that knew the house; you the one that saw; you the one overtaken and denounced; and you spin me a galley-yarn like that.
