Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A nutlike gall. Nutgalls on certain oak trees were formerly used as a source of tannic acid for making ink and dye.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An excrescence, chiefly of the oak. See
gall , 1.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A more or less round gall resembling a nut, esp. one of those produced on the oak and used in the arts. See
gall ,gallnut .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An enlarged growth on a tree formed in response to damage or
parasite . Sometimes called just agall .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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After completion of laconic epistolary compositions she abandoned the implement of calligraphy in the encaustic pigment, exposed to the corrosive action of copperas, green vitriol and nutgall.
Ulysses 2003
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The direct antidote is a solution of nutgall or oak bark.
Hygienic Physiology : with Special Reference to the Use of Alcoholic Drinks and Narcotics Joel Dorman Steele
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After completion of laconic epistolary compositions she abandoned the implement of calligraphy in the encaustic pigment, exposed to the corrosive action of copperas, green vitriol and nutgall.
Ulysses James Joyce 1911
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But the vegetable substance in which the gallic acid most abounds is _nutgall_, a kind of excrescence that grows on oaks, and from which the acid is commonly obtained for its various purposes.
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"You are progressive, sir," he went on; "you write in iron-nutgall ink, just made, commercially, in this year of fifty-six by Mr. Stephens.
The Sleuth of St. James's Square Melville Davisson Post
knitandpurl commented on the word nutgall
"Into the leather-crafts souk, fragrance of hides tanned with sumac and nutgall, shadow striated with light, green the dominant color, metonymy of the city."
Talismano by Abdelwaheb Meddeb, translated by Jane Kuntz, p 86 of the Dalkey Archive Press paperback
September 25, 2011