gan, the mouth. (Cant.) Harman, Caveat, p. 82; Brome, Jovial Crew, ii (Mort’s song).
ganch, gaunch, to let one fall on sharp stakes (orig. on a sharp hook), there to remain till death. Dryden, Don Sebastian, iii. 2 (Mufti). Hence gaunshing, this kind of punishment; Howell, Foreign Travell, Appendix, p. 85. F. gancher: ‘Ganché, (a person) let fall (as in a strappado) on sharp stakes pointed with iron, and thereon languishing until he die’ (Cotgr.); Ital. ‘ganciare, to sharpen at the point’ (Florio).
gandermooner, one who practised gallantry during the gander-moon, or month when his wife was lying in. Middleton, Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Meg’s song). ‘Gander-moon’ is still used in Cheshire, meaning the month of the wife’s confinement, see EDD. (s.v. Gander, (6)).
ganza, a goose. In The Man in the Moon, by Bp. Godwin, a man is said to have been drawn to the moon by Ganza’s. The name was borrowed from Holland’s Pliny, bk. x, c. 22 (vol. i. 281a), where Holland has: ‘The Geese there . . . be called Ganzæ.’ But the L. text has Gantæ. Hence the pl. ganzas, Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 782.
gar, to cause, to make; ‘I’ll gar take’, I will make you take, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.); ‘Ays gar’ (for I’s’gar), I shall make, Greene, James IV, Induction (Bohan). In gen. prov. use in Scotland and the north of England (EDD.). ME. gar (Cursor M. 4870); Icel. ger(v)a.
garb, a wheat-sheaf. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 370. Norm. F. garbe (F. gerbe), see Moisy, p. 533.
garboil, a tumult, disturbance, brawl. Ant. and Cl. i. 3. 61; ii. 2. 67; Shirley, Young Admiral, iii. 2. 1. F. garbouil, ‘a garboil, hurliburly’ (Cotgr.). Ital. garbuglio, a garboile; garbugliare, to garboile, to turmoile (Florio).
gardage, guardage, keeping, guardianship. Othello, i. 2. 70; Fletcher, Thierry, v. 1 (Vitry).
garded, guarded, trimmed, provided with an ornamental border or trimming. Merch. of Venice, ii. 2. 164; Hen. VIII, Prol. 16.
garden-bull, a bull baited at Paris Garden, on the Bankside, London. Middleton, The Changeling, ii. 1 (De F.).