gauze 
A veil, that seemed no more than gilded air, 
Flying by each fine ear, an Eastern gauze 
With seeds of gold. Tennyson, Lover's Tale, iv. 
Perhaps there are people who do see their own lives, 
even in moments of excitement, through this embroidered 
gauze of literature and art. 
A. Lang, Contemporary Kev., LIV. 817. 
2. Any slight open material resembling this 
fabric: as, wire gauze Empress gauze. See em- 
press. Lister's gauze, gauze impregnated with carbolic 
acid, resin, and paraffin, used as an antiseptic dressing. 
Wire gauze, wire cloth in which the wire is fine and the 
meshes are very small. 
II. a. Of or like gauze ; gauzy. 
In another ca3e, we see a white, smooth, soft worm 
turned into a black, hard crustaceous beetle with gauze 
wings. Paley, Nat. TheoL, xix. 
Gauze flannel. See flannel. Gauze point-lace, lace 
which has a ground of plain net, especially of machine- 
made net, of perfectly regular pattern. Gauze ribbon, 
a ribbon made ol fine silk muslin. 
gauze-dresser (gaz'dres"er), n. One whose 
occupation is the stiffening of gauze. 
gauze-tree (gaz'tre), . The lace-bark tree of 
Jamaica, Lagetta lintearia. 
gauze-winged (gaz'wingd), a. Having gauzy 
wings: applied to sundry insects, as May-flies. 
gauziness (ga'zi-nes), n. [< gauzy + -ness.] 
The quality of being gauzy ; gauzy texture or 
appearance. 
In drawing any stuffs, bindings of books or other finely 
textured substances, do not trouble yourself, as yet, much 
about the woolliness or gauzineet of the thing ; but get it 
right in shade and fold and true in pattern. 
liiiskin, Elem. of Drawing, p. 58. 
gauzy (ga'zi), a. \_< gauze + -yi.] Like gauze; 
thin as gauze. 
The whole essay, however, i of a flimsy .aauzy texture. 
Forster, Essays. 
The exquisite nautilus floated past us, with its gauzy 
sail set, looking like a thin slice out of a soap-bubble. 
C. W. Stoddard, South-Sea Idyls, p. 23. 
gavage (ga-vazh'), n. [F., < gaver, gorge fowls, 
pigeons, etc., with food in order to fatten them, 
< gave, in popular speech the crop or craw of a 
bird, < Picard gave, throat, Walloon gaf, crop 
or craw.] 1. A system of fattening poultry for 
market by forcing them to swallow fixed quan- 
tities of food at stated intervals. The fowls are 
confined in small boxes in tiers one over another, the head 
being outward. The food consists of a semi-fluid paste 
compounded according to various formulas, and it is forced 
into the mouths of the fowls through a flexible tube by 
means of a force-pump. 
2. In med., a similar method of forced feeding, 
employed under certain conditions. 
Thanks to the couveuse and gaoage, the time when the 
foetus becomes viable may now be placed in the seventh 
month. Medical Xewe, HI. 651. 
gave (gav). Preterit of give*. 
gavel 1 ! (gav' el), n. [< ME. gavel, < AS. gafol, 
gafel, tribute, tax, appar. connected with gifan 
(pret. geaf), give, but prob. adapted from Celtic : 
cf. W. gafael = Corn, gavel, a hold, tenure, = 
Ir. gabhail, a taking, spoil, conquest, = Gael. 
gabhail, a taking, booty, conquest, < gabh, take, 
receive. Cf. gavelkind. The same word appears 
in Eom. languages, F. gabelle, etc., > E. gabel, 
q. v. Contr. gale*, q. v.] 1 . In old Eng. law, 
rent ; tribute ; toll ; custom ; more specifically, 
rent payable otherwise than in feudal military 
service. 2. The tenure by which, according 
to either the ancient Saxon or Welsh custom,- 
land on the death of the tenant did not go to 
the eldest son, but was partitioned in equal 
shares among all the sons, or among several 
members of the family in equal degree, or by 
which, according to the Irish custom, the death 
of a holder involved a general redistribution of 
the tribal lands. Compare gavelkind. 
In the case of the death of the chief of the tribe, or even 
of any one of the clansmen, . . . the lands of all the sept 
were thrown into gavel and redivided. 
Fortnightly Rev., N. S., XL. 199. 
3. A partition made pursuant to such custom. 
A gavel or partition was made [in Wales] on the death 
of every member of a family for three generations, after 
which none could be enforced. 
Hallam, Const. Hist., III. 330. 
gavel 2 (gav'el), n. [< OF. gavellc, later javelle 
= Pr. guavella, mod. gaviau = Sp. gavilla = Pg. 
gavela, a sheaf of corn; referred by Diez and 
others, prob. erroneously, to an assumed L. 
form "capella, dim. of capulus, a handle, < ca- 
pere, take: see capable.] 1. A sheaf of corn 
before it is tied up ; a small heap of unbound 
wheat or other grain. [Obsolete or prov. Eng.] 
As fields that have been long time cloyed 
With catching weather, when their corn lies on the gavil 
heap, 
Are with a constant uorthwiud dried. 
2472 
2. A small mallet used by the presiding officer 
of a legislative body or public assembly to at- 
tract attention and signal for order. 
A handsome gavel, consisting of the bust of Hippocrates, 
admirably carved, was presented to the college. 
Medical Newi, 131. 524. 
gave! 2 t (gav'el), v. t. [< OF. 'gaveler, javeler; 
from the noun.] To bind into sheaves. Cot- 
grave. 
gavel 3 (ga'vel), n. A dialectal form of gable*. 
gaveled (gav'eld), a. [< gavel(-kind) + -ed 2 .] 
In old Eng. law, held under the tenure of gavel- 
kind : said of lands. 
gaveler, gaveller (gav'el-er), n. [< gavel* + 
-er*.] In coal-mining, the agent of the crown 
having the power to grant gales to the free 
miners. See gale*, 2. [Forest of Dean, Eng.] 
gavelet (gav'el-et), n. [See gavel 1 .] An an- 
cient and special cessavit, in the English coun- 
ty of Kent, where the custom of gavelkind con- 
tinues, by which the tenant, if ne withdraws 
the rent and services due to his lord, forfeits 
his lands and tenements. See gavelkind. 
gavelkind (gav'el-kind), n. [< Ir. gabhail-cine, 
frnvi'lkind, < i/ablidil, a taking (a tenure), = 
Gael, gabhail, a taking, a lease, farm, = W. ga- 
fael = Corn, gavel, a hold, holding, tenure (see 
gavel 1 ), + Ir. cine, a race, tribe, family (cf. W. 
cenedl, a tribe).] 1. Originally, in old Eng. 
law, the tenure of land let out for rent, includ- 
ing in that term money, labor, and provisions, 
but not military service ; also, the land so held. 
The most important incident of this tenure was that upon 
the death of the tenant all his sons inherited equal shares ; 
if he left no sons, the daughters ; if neither, then all his 
brothers inherited equal shares. When the feudal sys- 
tem introduced the law of primogeniture, the county of 
Kent and some other localities were privileged to retain 
this ancient custom of inheritance. 
Hiss Rossetti comes commended to our interest, not 
only as one of a family which seems to hold genius by the 
tenure of gavelkind, but as having a special claim by in- 
heritance to a love and understanding of Dante. 
Lowell, Among my Books, 2d ser., p. 47. 
Hence 2. In general use, land in Great Brit- 
ain or Ireland, or an estate therein, which by 
custom having the force of law is inheritable 
by all the sons together, and therefore sub- 
ject to partition, instead of going exclusively 
to the eldest. The word has been used in the following 
different senses, of which only the first and second are 
strictly correct : (a) socage tenure in England before the 
Conquest (see socage); (b) immemorial socage tenure in 
the county of Kent, England ; (<) the body of customs al- 
lowed on ancient socage lands in Kent ; ('0 the customs 
of partible descents in Kent ; (e) any custom of partition 
in any place. Elton. Irish gavelkind, the holding of 
a member of a sept which, by Irish custom, was not at his 
death divided among his sons, but was included in a re- 
distribution of all the lands of the sept among the sur- 
viving members of the sept. 
The landholders held their estates by ... an extraor- 
dinary tenure, that of Irish gavelkind. On the decease 
of a proprietor, instead of an equal partition among his 
children, as in the gavelkind of English law, the chief of 
the sept . . . made, or was entitled to make, a fresh di- 
vision of all the lands within his district. 
Ballam, Const. Hist., III. 329. 
gavella, n. See gabella. 
gaveller, n. See gaveler. 
gavelman (gav'el-rnan), n. ; pi. gavelmen (-men). 
[< gavel 1 + man.] A tenant holding land in 
gavelkind. 
gavelmedt (gav'el-med), n. [AS. gafol-mced, < 
gafol, ME. gavel, tribute, + maid, ME. mede, E. 
mead, meadow: see gavel* and wearf 2 .] In old 
Eng. law, the duty or work of mowing grass or 
cutting meadow-land, required by the superior 
from his customary tenants. 
gavelock (gav'e-lok), n. [Also gafflock; < ME. 
gavelock, gavelok, a spear, javelin, < AS. gafeluc 
(once, in a gloss), a spear or javelin. Cf. MHG. 
gabilot, a javelin, F. javelot, It. giavelotto, and 
F. javelin, > E. javelin, q. v. ; all of Celtic ori- 
gin, from the same source as gaff* and gable*.] 
If. A spear ; a javelin. 
I saugh hem launche at hym knyves and gavelokkee and 
dartes soche foison as it hadde reyned from heuene. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 300. 
2. An iron crow or lever. [North. Eng.] 
Wi 1 plough coulters and gavelocks 
They made the jail-house door to flee. 
BUlie Archie (Child's Ballads, VI. 95). 
gaverick (ga'ver-ik), . [Origin obscure.] A 
name of the red gurnard, Trigla cuculus, a com- 
mon fish on the coast of Cornwall in England. 
[Local, Eng.] 
gavla (ga'vi-S), n. [L., a bird, perhaps the 
sea-mew.] In ornith., a name variously used. 
(a) An old name of (1) some gull or gull-like bird, or (2) 
some plover or plover-like bird, (b) [cap.] A genus of 
gulls. Moshring, 1752; Brisson, 1760. (c) [cap.] Another 
Chapman, Iliad, xxi. genus of gulls (1) same as Rissa (Boie, 1844); (2) same 
gawk 
as Pagophtta (Boie, 1822). The ivory gull, P. eburnea, is 
now often called Gavia alba, (d) [cap.] A genus of noddy 
terns: a synonym of Anoiie. Summon, 1837. (e) [cap.] 
A genus of lapwing-plovers : a synonym of Vanellus. Glo- 
yer, 1842. (/) The specific name of sundry water-birds. 
Also gavian, gavina, gabion, gabina, gaviotat. 
gavial (ga'vi-al), n. [An adapted form (NL. 
gavialis) of what is otherwise written gharrial, 
ghurial, < Hind, ghariyal, a crocodile.] The 
Gangetic crocodile, Gavialis gangeticus, having 
Head of Gavial, or Gangetic Crocodile ( GavialU 
long, slender, subcylindric jaws with a protu- 
berance at the end of the upper one. it is one of 
the largest living crocodiles, sometimes attaining a length 
of 20 feet. The peculiar shape of the snout is a result of 
gradual modification, since it is broad and flattened in the 
young, and attains its highest development only in old 
males. The gavials swarm in some of the rivers of India, 
where they are objects of superstitious veneration. Also 
called nakoo. 
gavialid (ga-vi-al'id), n. A crocodilian of the 
family Gavialidce. 
G-avialidae (ga-vi-al'i-de), n. pi. [NL., < Ga- 
vialis + -idee.'] The family of crocodiles of 
which the genus Gavialis is the type, it belongs 
to the group Procoelia or Euiuchia of the order Crocodilia. 
It is characterized by the combination of a continuous se- 
ries of plates on the head and back, and by lower teeth 
which are not included within the margin of the upper 
jaw when the mouth is closed. 
Gavialis (ga-vi-a'lis), . [NL. (Oppel, 1811): 
see gai'ial.] The genus of crocodiles of which 
the gavial, Gavialis gangeticus, is the type. The 
snout is very long, cylindrlc.and knobbed at the end, where 
the nostrils open ; the lateral teeth are oblique, and the feet 
are webbed. The genus dates back in geologic time to the 
Upper Cretaceous. 
gavot, gavotte (ga-vof), . [F. gavotte, fern., 
< Gavot, an inhabitant of Gap, a town in the 
department of Hautes-Alpes, France, where 
the dance originated, or of the Alpine depart- 
ments in general.] 1. A dance of French ori- 
gin, somewhat resembling the minuet, remark- 
able for its combination of vivacity and digni- 
ty. It was introduced in the latter half of the seventeenth 
century, but was seldom performed after the middle of 
the eighteenth. 
2. Music for such a dance, or in its rhythm, 
which is duple and quick. Gavots are frequent 
in old-fashioned suites, and have recently come 
again into favor. 
The little French chevalier opposite . . . might be heard 
in his apartment of nights playing tremulous old gavottes 
and minuets on a wheezy old fiddle. 
Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xxxviii. 
gavotta (ga-vot'ta), n. [Italianized form of 
gavotte.] Same as garot. 
gaw 1 (ga), n. [Sc., = E. galft.] 1. A mark 
left on the skin by a stroke or pressure. 2. A 
crease in cloth. 3. A layer or stratum of a 
different kind of soil from the rest. 
gaw 2 (ga), n. [Sc., prob. a particular use of 
gaw 1 .] A drain; a little ditch or trench; a 
grip- 
Care should be taken to have plenty of channels orgawi 
or grips, as they are usually termed in Scotland. Stephens. 
gaw 3 (ga), n. [A var. of gaul*.] A boat-pole. 
Hamersly. 
gawby (ga'bi), n. See gaby. 
gawdt, . and v. An obsolete form of gaud 1 . 
gawdyt, n. An obsolete form of gaudy. 
gawf (gaf), n. In costermongers' slang, a cheap 
red-skinned apple, which is rubbed hard with a 
cloth to give it the appearance and feeling of 
an apple of superior quality. [Eng.] 
gawk (gak),i. and . [Msogauk; a var. of gowk, 
gouk, a cuckoo, a fool (see gowk) ; < ME. gowke, 
a cuckoo, hence (spelled goke) a fool, < Icel. 
gaukr = Sw. gok = Dan. gjog, a cuckoo, = AS. 
gcdc, a cuckoo (which gave ME. gel;, geke, a 
cuckoo), = OHG. gouh, a cuckoo, MHG. goucJi, 
G. gaach, a cuckoo, a fool, simpleton. A differ- 
ent word from cuckoo, but perhaps, like that, 
ult. of imitative origin. For the transition of 
sense from 'cuckoo' to 'fool' or 'simpleton,' 
cf. booby, gull 1 , goose.] I. n. 1. A cuckoo. 
[Scotch and North. Eng.] 2. A stupid, awk- 
ward fellow; a fool; a simpleton; a booby. 
Also gawky. 
A certain gawk, named chevalier de Gassaud, accus- 
tomed to visit in thu house at Manosque, sees good to 
