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.