Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GAD, n. [Sax. gad, a goad and a wedge; Ir. gadh, a dart.]

1. A wedge or ingot of steel. Moxon.
2. A style or graver. Shak.
3. A punch of iron with a wooden handle, used by miners. Encyc.

GAD, v.i. [Ir. gad, a stealing, properly a roving, as rob is connected with rove; gadaim, to steal. It coincides with the Russ. chod, a going or passing; choju, to go, to pass, to march. See Class Gd, No. 17, Eth. and No. 38.]

1. To walk about; to rove or ramble idly or without any fixed purpose. Give the water no passage, neither a wicked woman liberty to gad abroad. Ecclus.
2. To ramble in growth; as, the gadding vine. Milton.

GAD'A-BOUT, n.

One who walks about without business. [Colloquial.]

GAD'DER, n.

A rambler; one that roves about idly.

GAD'DING, ppr.

Rambling; roving; walking about.

GAD'DING-LY, adv.

In a roving, idle manner.

GAD-FLY', n. [Sax. gad, a goad, and fly.]

An insect of the genus Œstrus, which stings cattle, and deposits its eggs in their skin; called also the breeze.

GAD'OID, n. [L. gadus, cod.]

One of a family of soft-finned fishes, of the order of Subbrachians, or those having the ventral fins below or in advance of the pectoral, of which family the cod is the type.

GA-DO'LI-NITE, n.

A mineral, so called from Professor Gadolin, usually in amorphous masses of a blackish color, and having the appearance of vitreous lava. It contains the earth called yttria.

GAD'WALL, n.

A fowl of the genus Anas, inhabiting the north of Europe. Pennant.

GAE'LIC, or GA'LIC, a. [from Gael, Gaul, Gallia.]

An epithet denoting what belongs to the Gaels, tribes of Celtic origin inhabiting the highlands of Scotland; as, the Gaelic language.

GAE'LIC, n.

The language of the highlanders of Scotland.

GAFF, n. [Ir. gaf, a hook; Sp. and Port. gafa; Shemitic כפף, כפה, to bend.]

1. A harpoon.
2. A sort of boom or pole, used in small ships, to extend the upper edge of the mizzen, and of those sails whose foremost edge is joined to the mast by hoops or lacings, and which are extended by a boom below, as the main sail of a sloop. [Qu. Sax. geafle, a pole.] Mar. Dict.

GAF'FER, n. [Qu. Chal. and Heb. גבר gebar, a man, vir; or Sax. gefere, a companion, a peer; or Sw. gubbe, an old man.]

A word of respect, which seems to have degenerated into a term of familiarity or contempt. [Little used.] Gay.

GAF'FLE, n. [Sax. geaflas, chops, spurs on cocks.]

1. An artificial spur put on cocks when they are set to fight.
2. A steel lever to bend cross-bows. Ainsworth.

GAG, n.

Something thrust into the mouth and throat to hinder speaking.

GAG, v.t. [W. cegiaw, to choke, to strangle, from cèg, a choking. Cêg signifies the mouth, an opening.]

1. To stop the mouth by thrusting something into the throat, so as to hinder speaking. Johnson.
2. To keck; to heave with nausea. [In Welsh, gag is an opening or cleft; gagenu, to open, chap or gape.]

GAGE, n. [Fr. gage, a pledge, whence gager, to pledge; engager, to engage; G. wagen, to wage, to hazard or risk; wage, a balance; D. waagen, to venture, Sw. våga, Eng. to wage. It seems to be allied to wag, weigh. The primary sense is to throw, to lay, or deposit. If the elements are Bg, Wg, the original French orthography was guage.]

1. A pledge or pawn; something laid down or given as a security for the performance of some act to be done by the person depositing the thing, and which is to be forfeited by non-performance. It is used of a movable thing; not of land or other immovable. There I throw my gage. Shak.
2. A challenge to combat; that is, a glove, a cap, a gauntlet, or the like, cast on the ground by the challenger, and taken up by the accepter of the challenge. Encyc.
3. A measure, or rule of measuring; a standard. [See Gauge.] Young.
4. The number of feet which a ship sinks in the water.
5. Among letter-founders, a piece of hard wood variously notched, used to adjust the dimensions, slopes, &c. of the various sorts of letters. Encyc.
6. An instrument in joinery made to strike a line parallel to the straight side of a board. Encyc. A sliding-gage, a tool used by mathematical instrument makers for measuring and setting off distances. Encyc. Sea-gage, an instrument for finding the depth of the sea. Encyc. Tide-gage, an instrument for determining the highth of the tides. Encyc. Wind-gage, an instrument for measuring the force of the wind on any given surface. Encyc. Weather-gage, the windward side of a ship.

GAGE, v.t.

1. To pledge; to pawn; to give or deposit as a pledge or security for some other act; to wage or wager. [Obs.] Shak.
2. To bind by pledge, caution or security; to engage. Shak.
3. To measure; to take or ascertain the contents of a vessel, cask or ship; written also gauge.

GA'GED, pp.

Pledged; measured.

GA'GER, n.

One who gages or measures the contents.

GAG'GER, n.

One that gags.

GAG'GLE, v.i. [D. gaggelen; G. gackern; coinciding with cackle.]

To make a noise like a goose. Bacon.

GAG'GLING, n.

The noise of geese.

GA'GING, ppr.

Pledging; measuring the contents.