gaffle, a steel lever for bonding the cross-bow. Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal vi, 67; Complete Gunner, iii. 15. 12 (NED.). Du. gaffel, a fork.
gage, a quart-pot. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); ‘A gage of bowse, whiche is a quart-pot of drinke’, Harman, Caveat, p. 34. For gauge, i.e. a measure.
gag-tooth, a projecting or prominent tooth. Return from Parnassus, l. 2 (Ingenieso); hence, gag-toothed, Chapman, Gent. Usher, i. 1 (Vincentio); gagge-toothed, Lyly, Euphues, p. 116.
gain, near, straight, direct; said of a way; ‘They told me it was a gayner way, and a fayrer way’, Latimer, 3 Sermon before King, ed. Arber, p. 101 (top). In gen. prov. use in Scotland, and in England in the north country, Midlands, and E. Anglia, EDD. (s.v. Gain, adj. 1). ME. geyn, ryȝht forth, ‘directus’ (Prompt.); Icel. gegn.
gaingiving, a misgiving. Hamlet, v. 2. 226. The prefix gain- has the sense of opposition. OE. gegn, see NED.
†gain-legged (?); ‘I’ll short that gain-legg’d Longshank by the top’, Peele, Edward I (ed. Dyce, i. 103). Possibly, nimble, active-legged. Cp. EDD. (sv. Gain, adj. 5).
galage, a wooden shoe, or shoe with a wooden sole; ‘A Galage, a shoe: solea, sandalium’, Levins, Manip.; ‘Galage, a startuppe or clownish shoe’, Glosse to Spenser’s Shep. Kal., Feb., 244; ‘Shoe called a gallage or patten whyche hath nothynge but lachettes’, Hulcet. ME. galegge or galoch, ‘crepita’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 837); Anglo-F. galoche. See Dict. (s.v. Galoche).
gald, to gall; pt. t. galded, Gascoigne, Works, i. 422; pp. galded, Eden, First three Books on America, p. 386. A false form; from the pp.
galley-foist, a state barge, esp. of the Lord Mayor of London. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, v. 2 (end); B. Jonson, Silent Woman, iv. 2. See [foist].
galliard, lively, brisk, gay. Shadwell, Humorist, ii (Works, ed. 1720, i. 172); galyarde, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, ch. 3, § 1. ME. gaillard (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4367); F. gaillard, gay.