Gabled Tower, Dormans, France. 
[From Viollet-le-Duc's "Diet, de 
['Architecture.") 
Having gable- 
gabled 
This admirable house, in the center of the town, 
elaborately timbered, and much restored, is a really im- 
posing monument. //. James, Jr., Little Tour, p. 99. 
Gabled tower, a tower 
finished with gables on 
two sides or on all four 
sides, instead of terminat- 
ing in a spire, a parapet, 
or otherwise. 
gable-end (ga ' bl- 
end'), n. The end- 
wall of a building on 
a side where there is 
a gable. 
I affect not these high 
ffable-eitds, these Tuscan 
tops, nor your coronets, 
nor your arches, nor your 
pyramids. 
B. Jomoii, Poetaster, 
[iii. 1. 
The houses of the high- 
er class were generally 
constructed of wood, ex- 
cepting the (fable end, 
which was of small black 
and yellow Dutch bricks, 
and always faced on the 
street. 
Jroiny, Knickerbocker, 
[p. 166. 
gable-ended (ga'bl-eu'ded), a. 
ends. 
White Hall, an old gable-ended house some quarter of a 
mile from the town. 
T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Rugby, 1. 7. 
gable-pole (ga'bl-pol), w. A pole placed over 
the thatch on a roof to secure it. 
gable-roof (ga'bl-rof), n. In arch., a ridged 
roof terminating at one or both ends in a gable. 
gable-roofed (ga'bl-roft), a. In arch., having 
a gable-roof. 
gablet (ga'blet), n. [< gable 1 + dim. -et.'] In 
arch., a small gable or gable-shaped feature, 
frequently intro- 
duced as an orna- 
ment on buttress- 
es, screens, etc., 
particularly in me- 
dieval structures. 
All the seid fynysh- 
ing and performing of 
the seid towre with 
fynyalls, ryfaat, gab- 
bletts, . . . and every 
other thynge belong- 
yng to the same, to be 
well and workmanly 
wrought. 
Quoted in Watpole's 
[Anecdotes of Faint- 
ling, I., App. 
Unpretentious ga- 
blets take the place of 
the ornate pinnacles. 
The American, XII. 
[103. 
Gads, fastened together for convenience in 
carrying. 
t. From a buttress of York 
Minster, England. 
gab-lever (gab'lev"er), n. In steam-engines, 
a contrivance for lifting the gab from the wrist 
on the crank of the eccentric-shaft in order to 
disconnect the eccentric from the valve-gear. 
Also gab-lifter. 
gable-window (ga'bl-win'do), n. A window 
in the end or gable of a building, or a window 
having its upper part shaped like a gable. 
gab-lifter (gab'lif"ter), n. Same as gab-lever. 
gablock (gab'lok), n. [Another form of gave- 
lock.~\ A false spur fitted to the heel of a game- 
cock to make it more effective in fighting; a 
gaff or steel. Craig. 
Gabriel bellt. See angelus bell, under bell 1 . 
Gabrielite (ga'bri-el-It), n. [< Gabriel (see def.) 
+ -ste 2 .] Eccles., one of a sect of Anabaptists 
founded in Pomerania in 1530 by one Gabriel 
Scherling. They refused to bear arms and to 
take oaths, and preached perfect social and re- 
ligious equality. 
gabronite, n. See gabbronite. 
gaby (ga'bi), n.; pi. gabies (-biz). [Also dial. 
gawby; appar. connected with Icel. gapi, a rash, 
reckless man (gapa-mudhr, a gaping, heedless 
fellow), < gapa, gape: see gape.] A silly, fool- 
ish person ; a simpleton ; a dunce. [Colloq. or 
prov. Eng.] 
Now don't stand laughing there like a great gaby, but 
come and shake hands. //. Kingsley, Geoffry Hamlyn, ix. 
gad 1 (gad), H, [< ME. gad (gad), gadde, pi. 
gaddes, another form (with doubled consonant 
and shortened vowel, due to Scand. influence: 
see below) of gad (gad), gode (> E. goad), < AS. 
gad (ace. gdde, whence in some dictionaries an 
erroneously assumed nom. *gddu), a goad, gad, 
= Icel. gaddr = Sw. gadd, a gad, goad, = ODan. 
gad, a gad, goad, gadde, a gadfly : see further 
2425 
under goad, which is etymological ly the normal 
E. form.] 1. A point or pointed instrument, 
as a pointed bar of steel, a spear, or an arrow- 
head. 
Whose greedy stomach steely gads digests ; 
Whose crisped train adorns triumphant crests. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 5. 
I will go get a leaf of brass, 
And with a gad of steel will write these words. 
Shak., Tit. And., iv. 1. 
"De'il be in me, but I'll put this het gad down her 
throat! " cried he in an ecstasy of wrath, snatching a bar 
from the forge. Scott, Waverley, xxx. 
2f. A sharp point affixed to a part of the ar- 
mor, as the gauntlet, which could thus be 
used to deal a formidable blow. 3. A thick 
pointed nail; a gad-nail; specifically, in min- 
ing, a pointed tool used for loosening and break- 
ing up rock or coal which has been shaken or 
thrown down 
by a blast, or 
which is loose 
and jointy 
enough to be 
got without the 
use of powder. 
It is intermediate 
between a drill 
and a wedge, but is 
properly called a 
gad only when ending in a point, and not in an edge, as a 
wedge. Old drills are often made into gads, which may be 
of any length ; but from six inches to a foot is common. 
4. A wedge or ingot of steel or iron. Johnson. 
Flemish steel is brought down the Rhine to Dort and 
other parts, some in bars and some \ngads; and therefore 
called Flemish steel, and sometimes gad steel. 
Moxon, Mechanical Exercises. 
5. A stick, or rod of wood, sharpened to a point, 
or provided with a metal point, used to drive 
cattle with ; a goad ; hence, a slender stick or 
rod of any kind, especially one used for whip- 
ping. [Still in general colloquial use.] 
Their horsemen are with jacks for most part clad, 
Their horses are both swift of course and strong, 
They run on horseback with a slender gad, 
And like a speare, but that it is more long. 
SirJ. Harington, tr. of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, x. 73. 
Affliction to the soule is like the gade to the oxen, a 
teacher of obedience. Boyd, Last Battell, p. 1068. 
To fawning dogs some times I gaue a bone, 
And flung some scraps to such as nothing had : 
But in my hands still kept a polden gad. 
Mir. for Magi., p. 617. 
6. A gadfly. Halliicell. [Prov. Eng.] 7. In 
old Scotch prisons, a round bar of iron cross- 
ing the condemned cell horizontally at the 
height of about six inches from the floor, and 
strongly built into the wall at both ends. The 
ankles of a prisoner sentenced to death were secured with- 
in shackles which were connected, by a chain about four 
feet long, with a large iron ring which traveled on the 
gad. Watch-dogs are now sometimes fastened in a sim- 
ilar way. Upon or on the gadt, upon the spur or im- 
pulse of the moment, as if driven by a gad. 
Kent banish'd thus ! and France in choler parted ! 
And the king gone to-night ! prescrib'd his power ! 
Confln'd to exhibition I All this done 
Upon the gad! Shak., Lear, i. 2. 
gad 1 (gad), v. t. ; pret. and pp. gadded, ppr. 
gadding. [< gad 1 , n., 3.] 1. To fasten with 
a gad-nail. Halliwell. 2. In mining, to break 
up or loosen with the gad ; use the gad 
upon. 
gad'-' (gad), v. i.; pret. and pp. gadded, ppr. gad- 
ding. [First in 16th century; prob. < gad 1 , 6, 
the gadfly "to flit about like a gad-fly" (Hal- 
liwell), or "from the restless running about of 
animals stung by the gadfly" (Imp. Diet.). Of. 
Olt. assilo, a gadfly, a goad (mod. assillo, a 
horse-fly, hornet, stinging-fly), whence assilare, 
"to be bitten with a horsefly, to leap and skip 
as a horse or ox bitten by flies, to be wild or 
raging" (Florio), mod. assillare, smart, rage, be 
in a passion.] If. To flit about restlessly; 
move about uneasily or with excitement. 
On the shores stoode closely together great numbers of 
Brytaines, and among them wommen gadding vppe and 
downe frantickly in mourning weedes, theyr hayre hang- 
ing about their eares, an<J shaking flrebrandes. 
Stow, Chron., The Romans, an. 62. 
A fierce, loud buzzing breeze, their stings draw blood, 
And drive the cattle gadding through the wood. 
Dryden, tr. of Virgil's Georgics, iii. 
2. To ramble about idly, from trivial curiosity 
or for gossip. 
Give the water no passage; neither a wicked woman 
liberty to gad abroad. Ecclus. xxv. 25. 
Envy is a gadding passion, and walketh the streets, and 
doth not keep home. Bacon, Envy (ed. 1887). 
The student and lover of nature has this advantage of 
people who gad up and down the world, seeking some 
novelty or excitement : he has only to stay at home and 
see the procession pass. The Century, XXV. 672. 
gade 
Hence 3. To ramble or rove; wander, as in 
thought or speech ; straggle, as in growth. 
Desert caves, 
With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown. 
MUlon, Lycidas, 1. 40. 
Now gads the wild vine o'er the pathless ascent. 
Wordsworth, Fort Fuentes. 
The good nuns would check her gadding tongue 
Full often. Tennyson, Guinevere. 
And there the gadding woodbine crept about. 
Bryant, The Burial-Place. 
gad 2 (gad), H. [< (/ad 2 , f .] The act of gadding 
or rambling about : used in the phrase on or 
upon the gad. [Colloq.] 
I have no very good opinion of Sirs. Charles' nursery- 
maid ; I hear strange stories of her ; she is always upon 
the gad. Jane Austen, Persuasion, vi. 
Thou might have a bit of news to tell one after being on 
the gad all the afternoon. 
Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers, xxv. 
gad 3 (gad), n, [A minced form of God, occur- 
ring also in gadzooks, begad, egad, etc.] The 
name of God, minced as an oath. Compare 
egad. 
How he still cries "Gad!" and talks of popery coming 
on, as all the fanatiques do. Pepys, Diary, Nov. 24, 1662. 
gadabout (gad'a-bout"), n. anda. I. n. Onewho 
gads or walks idly about, especially from mo- 
tives of curiosity or gossip. [Colloq.] 
Mr. Binnie woke up briskly when the Colonel entered. 
"It is you, you gadabout, is it?" cried the civilian. 
Thackeray, Newcomes, viii. 
II. a. Gadding; rambling. 
Why should I after all abuse the gadabout propensities 
of my countrymen ? T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Rugby, i. 1. 
gadbeet (gad'be), . [< gad 1 + See.] Same as 
gadfly, 1. 
You see an ass with a brizze or a gadbee under his tail, 
or fly that stings him, run hither and thither without 
keeping any path or way. [Trquhart, tr. of Rabelais, i. 44. 
A noisome lust that as the gadbee stings. 
Brouming, Artemis Prologizes. 
gad-bush (gad'bush), n. A name given in Ja- 
maica to the Arceuthobiitm gracile, a leafless 
mistletoe. 
gad-crackingt, n. A whip-cracking. See the 
extract. 
At Hundon, in Lincolnshire, there is still annually 
practised on this day [Palm Sunday) a remarkable cus- 
tom, called gad cracking, . . . which is fully explained in 
the following petition, presented to the House of Lords in 
May, 1836, by the lord of the manor ; but without effect, 
as the ceremony was repeated in 1837 : . . . A cart-whip 
of the fashion of several centuries since, called a gad-whip, 
... is, during divine service, cracked in the church- 
porch. Hampson, Medii M\l Kalendariiim (1841), 1. 182. 
gadded (gad'ed), a. [= ODan. gaddet, furnished 
with a goad; as gad 1 + -ed 2 ."} Furnished with 
gads or sharp points. 
The gauntlets . . . are richly ornamented on the knuck- 
les, but not gadded. J. JR. Plancht. 
gadder (gad'er), n. 1. A rambler; one who 
roves idly about. 
Sincere or not, the resident Londoners were great play- 
goers, and gadders generally. 
Doran, Annals of Eng. Stage, I. xii. 
2. In quarrying, same as gadding-machine. 
It is claimed for the diamond gadder that it will do its 
work at the rate of 180 feet a day in rock of as soft and 
even a texture as marble. Set. Amer., N. S., LVI. 21. 
gadding (gad'ing),. [Verbaln.of#ad 2 ,0.] The 
act of going about idly, or of moving from place 
to place from mere curiosity ; an idle visit. 
Whilst we are environed with numerous outward ob- 
jects, which, smiling on us, give our gaddiiujt to them the 
temptation of an inviting welcome ; how inclined are we 
to forget, and wander from our great Master ! 
Boyle, Works, II. 384. 
gadding-car (gad'ing-kar), n. Same as gadding- 
machine. 
gaddingly (gad'ing-li), adv. In a gadding or 
roving manner. 
gadding-machine (gad'ing-ma-shen"), n. In 
quarrying, a platform on whicli a steam-drill is 
mounted for drilling holes in getting out dimen- 
sion-stone. The platform can be moved from 
hole to hole as may be necessary. Also gadder, 
gadding-car. [U. S.] 
The gadding machines . . . drill or bore circular holes 
along the bottom and sides of the blocks, into which 
wedges are introduced and the stone split from its bed. 
Set. Amer., N. S., LVI. 21. 
gaddish (gad'ish), o. [< gad? + -is**.] Dis- 
posed to gad or wander idly about. 
gaddishness (gad'ish-nes), n. The quality of 
being gaddish ; the habit of idle roving. 
Grey hairs may have nothing under them but gadish- 
ness, and folly many years old. 
Abp. leighton, On 1 Pet. III. 13. 
gade (gad), H.- A fish: same as roekUng. See 
Motella. 
