Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A soldier or armed retainer of a chief in ancient Ireland, the Hebrides, or other Gaelic countries.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A heavy-armed foot soldier from Ireland and the Western Isles in the time of Edward �
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
mercenary warrior élite among Gaelic-Norse clans residing in the Western Isles of Scotland and Scottish Highlands from the mid 13th century to the end of the 16th century.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Trouble is, the enigmatic and gorgeous Luke turns out to be a gallowglass—a soulless faerie assassin.
Archive 2010-01-01 2010
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And Luke is a gallowglass -- a faerie assassin, who's been sent to make sure she sees nothing ever again.
The WritingYA Weblog: The Lies of Faerie tanita davis 2008
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And Luke is a gallowglass -- a faerie assassin, who's been sent to make sure she sees nothing ever again.
Archive 2008-08-01 tanita davis 2008
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Trouble is, the enigmatic and gorgeous Luke turns out to be a gallowglass—a soulless faerie assassin.
Archive 2008-11-01 Mulluane 2008
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Trouble is, the enigmatic and gorgeous Luke turns out to be a gallowglass—a soulless faerie assassin.
Debut Showcase: Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception by Maggie Stiefvater Mulluane 2008
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Bonnaught and gallowglass, throng from each mountain pass.
Three Wonder Plays Lady Gregory 1892
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For at the first onset the great gallowglass, amazed to see his man yet living, and ashamed, perchance, of his foul stroke, missed his mark and tumbled in a heap upon his foeman's sword.
Sir Ludar A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess Talbot Baines Reed 1872
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Am I to be told my duty by a raw-boned, ill-conditioned Irish gallowglass that I have fed at my table and spent half my life in making a gentleman of?
Sir Ludar A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess Talbot Baines Reed 1872
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He may have been seventy years of age, yet his face was knit as hard as a warrior's of thirty, and he stepped out as lissom and quick as his youngest gallowglass.
Sir Ludar A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess Talbot Baines Reed 1872
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= The kern or cateran of the Highlands was a light-armed infantryman, as opposed to the heavy-armed "gallowglass."
Lady of the Lake Walter Scott 1801
sionnach commented on the word gallowglass
appears in "Macbeth": The merciless Macdonald...... from the western isles of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied.
Derived from the Gaelic "gall-oglach", meaning foreign soldier. One of Ruth Rendell's thrillers is called "Gallowglass" as well.
January 30, 2007
moonlight commented on the word gallowglass
Thank you.
October 14, 2009