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Whispering gallery   /wˈɪspərɪŋ gˈæləri/   Listen
noun
Gallery  n.  (pl. galleries)  
1.
A long and narrow corridor, or place for walking; a connecting passageway, as between one room and another; also, a long hole or passage excavated by a boring or burrowing animal.
2.
A room for the exhibition of works of art; as, a picture gallery; hence, also, a large or important collection of paintings, sculptures, etc.
3.
A long and narrow platform attached to one or more sides of public hall or the interior of a church, and supported by brackets or columns; sometimes intended to be occupied by musicians or spectators, sometimes designed merely to increase the capacity of the hall.
4.
(Naut.) A frame, like a balcony, projecting from the stern or quarter of a ship, and hence called stern gallery or quarter gallery, seldom found in vessels built since 1850.
5.
(Fort.) Any communication which is covered overhead as well as at the sides. When prepared for defense, it is a defensive gallery.
6.
(Mining) A working drift or level.
Whispering gallery. See under Whispering.



adjective
Whispering  adj.  A. & n. from Whisper. v. t.
Whispering gallery, or Whispering dome, one of such a form that sounds produced in certain parts of it are concentrated by reflection from the walls to another part, so that whispers or feeble sounds are audible at a much greater distance than under ordinary circumstances. The dome of the U. S. capitol building is one example.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Whispering gallery" Quotes from Famous Books



... me; rich and beggared, splendid and sullen, idle and busy London. I was floating on those waves of human being, in which the struggler must make for the shore, or sink. I was in the centre of that huge whispering gallery, where every sound of earth was echoed and re-echoed with new power; and where it was impossible to dream. My days were now spent in communication with the offices of government, and a large portion of my nights in carrying on those correspondences, which, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLV. July, 1844. Vol. LVI. • Various



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