gallery

noun pl. gal·ler·ies

1. A roofed promenade, especially one extending along the wall of a building and supported by arches or columns on the outer side.
2. A long enclosed passage, such as a hallway or corridor.
3. a. A narrow balcony, usually having a railing or balustrade, along the outside of a building.
   b. A projecting or recessed passageway along an upper story on the interior or exterior of a large building, generally marked by a colonnade or arcade.
   c. Such a passageway situated over the aisle of a church and opening onto the nave. Also called tribune².
4. Southwestern Gulf States See veranda.
5. a. An upper section, often with a sloping floor, projecting from the rear or side walls of a theater or an auditorium to provide additional seating.
   b. The seats in such a section, usually cheaper than those on the main floor.
   c. The cheapest seats in a theater, generally those of the uppermost gallery.
   d. The audience occupying a gallery or cheap section of a theater.
6. A large audience or group of spectators, as at a tennis or golf match.
7. The general public, usually considered as exemplifying a lack of discrimination or sophistication: accused the administration of playing to the gallery on the defense issue.
8. a. A building, an institution, or a room for the exhibition of artistic work.
   b. An establishment that displays and sells works of art.
   c. A photographer's studio.
9. A collection; an assortment: The trial featured a gallery of famous and flamboyant witnesses.
10. a. An underground tunnel or passageway, as in a cave or one dug for military or mining purposes.
    b. A passage made by a tunneling insect or animal.
11. Nautical A platform or balcony at the stern or quarters of some early sailing ships.
12. A decorative upright trimming or molding along the edge of a table top, tray, or shelf.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English galerie

Origin: , from Old French

Origin: , from Old North French galilee, galilee; see galilee

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Related Forms:

• galˈler·ied adjective

Regional Note: In Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, an open roofed porch that runs along at least one side of a house has been called a gallery: “Out on the small front gallery she had hung Bobinôt's Sunday clothes to air” (Kate Chopin). Craig M. Carver, the author of American Regional Dialects, points out that the word gallery, from Old French galerie, was borrowed into British English in the 15th century and was brought over to the American colonies by English-speaking settlers. Although the word in the sense “porch” did not survive in the American English of the East Coast, it was borrowed separately, probably from Acadian French, into the English of 18th-century Louisiana and there survived as part of the Southwestern Gulf dialect.