GALLEY • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Galley

Translators

Dictionaries

Courses

Other

Home

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/gˈæli/ Listen

noun

Galley n. (pl. galleys)

(Naut.) A vessel propelled by oars, whether having masts and sails or not; as:

(a)

A large vessel for war and national purposes; common in the Middle Ages, and down to the 17th century.

(b)

A name given by analogy to the Greek, Roman, and other ancient vessels propelled by oars.

(c)

A light, open boat used on the Thames by customhouse officers, press gangs, and also for pleasure.

(d)

One of the small boats carried by a man-of-war. Note: The typical galley of the Mediterranean was from one hundred to two hundred feet long, often having twenty oars on each side. It had two or three masts rigged with lateen sails, carried guns at prow and stern, and a complement of one thousand to twelve hundred men, and was very efficient in mediaeval warfare. Galleons, galliots, galleasses, half galleys, and quarter galleys were all modifications of this type.

The cookroom or kitchen and cooking apparatus of a vessel; sometimes on merchant vessels called the caboose.

(Chem.) An oblong oven or muffle with a battery of retorts; a gallery furnace.

(Print.)

(a)

An oblong tray of wood or brass, with upright sides, for holding type which has been set, or is to be made up, etc.

(b)

A proof sheet taken from type while on a galley; a galley proof.

Galley slave, a person condemned, often as a punishment for crime, to work at the oar on board a galley. "To toil like a galley slave."

Galley slice (Print.), a sliding false bottom to a large galley.

See images of 'Galley'

Etymology of 'Galley'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Galley" Quotes from Famous Books

... of every honest heart for their brave outspokenness. Too long has this mediaeval monstrosity cramped our lives. The beautiful word "Home" conceals a doll's house or whitewashes a sepulchre. Marriage is misery in two syllables. How can people be happy chained together like galley-slaves? It contradicts all we know of ...

— Without Prejudice • Israel Zangwill

... and probably he concluded that the Judith had gone to get firewood for the galley, to fill her water-casks, or for some similar purpose. The fictitious Mr. Fetters kept his place at the wheel. The binnacle had been lighted by the cook, and he knew the exact course for the entrance to the bay. He felt that he was in possession of the Judith and her valuable cargo; and ...

— Within The Enemy's Lines - SERIES: The Blue and the Gray--Afloat • Oliver Optic

... of these virtuous appearances, Oscar Husson was undergoing a great strife in his inmost being. At times he thought of quitting a life so directly against his tastes and his nature. He felt that galley-slaves were happier than he. Galled by the collar of this iron system, wild desires seized him to fly when he compared himself in the street with the well-dressed young men whom he met. Sometimes he was driven by a sort of madness towards women; then, again, he resigned himself, ...

— A Start in Life • Honore de Balzac

... In the galley the fires were out, the ovens cold, the soup-kettles empty, and all the cooks, dish-washers, and scrubbers were absorbing the eloquence of the third assistant pie-maker, who stood on an empty biscuit-box and explained the glories of the one-hour ...

— The Valley of Vision • Henry Van Dyke

... friendlier was his eye On the great man of Athens, whom for foe He knew, than on the sycophantic fry That broke as waters round a galley's flow, Bubbles at prow and foam along the wake. Solidity the Thunderer could not shake, Beneath an adverse wind still stripping bare, His kinsman, of the light-in-cavern look, From thought drew, and a countenance could wear ...

— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

More quotes...