Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A unit of volume in the US Customary System, used in liquid measure, equal to 4 quarts (3.785 liters).
  • noun A unit of volume in the British Imperial System, used in liquid and dry measure, equal to 4 quarts (4.546 liters).
  • noun A container with a capacity of one gallon.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An English measure of capacity for dry or liquid substances, but usually for liquids, containing 4 quarts.
  • noun A measure of land. A gallon of land is supposed to have been the amount of land proper to sow a gallon of grain in.
  • noun The butter-bur or butterdock, Petasites Petasites.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A measure of capacity, containing four quarts; -- used, for the most part, in liquid measure, but sometimes in dry measure.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A unit of volume, equivalent to eight pints
  • noun UK exactly 4.54609 liters; an imperial gallon
  • noun US 231 cubic inches or approximately 3.785 liters for liquids (a "U.S. liquid gallon")
  • noun US one-eighth of a U.S. bushel or approximately 4.405 liters for dry goods (a "U.S. dry gallon").
  • noun in the plural, informal A large quantity (of any liquid).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a British imperial capacity measure (liquid or dry) equal to 4 quarts or 4.545 liters
  • noun United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, a liquid measure, from Old North French galon.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French galon, galun, ultimately from Medieval Latin galleta. Cf. also French jalon.

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