Word.ws English Dictionary

galling

galling adjective: vexing, humiliating; eliciting indignation or bitterness. Also the present participle and gerund of gall.

Adjective

galling (comparative more galling, superlative most galling)

  1. Vexing, humiliating; eliciting indignation or bitterness.
    • Uruguay were quick to the ball, strong in the tackle and seemed intent on showing they were a better team than had been apparent in their defeat to Costa Rica. Yet the most galling part for England is that they helped them on their way.2014 June 20, Daniel Taylor, “World Cup 2014: Uruguay sink England as Suárez makes his mark”, in guardian.co.uk

Noun

galling (countable and uncountable, plural gallings)

  1. A feeling that induces bitterness.
    • the gallings of one's own conscience
  2. Material transfer caused by adhesion between sliding surfaces, potentially resulting in wear or binding.
    • If, however, the input crank on the standby rudder actuator is not free to rotate with respect to the actuator housing because of galling between the shaft and bearing, the actuator housing, input crank, and control rod will act as a rigid link between the rudder and the torque tube. The inability...2001 March 27, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.16.3 Detail Examination and Tests of Standby Rudder Actuator Input Shaft and Bearing”, in Aircraft Accident Report: Uncontrolled Descent and...

Also used as

galling is also the present participle and gerund of gall.

Forms of galling

Adjective
comparativemore galling
superlativemost galling
Noun
pluralgallings

Origin of galling

From gall + -ing. The adjective follows from the verb.

Words formed from galling

Questions about galling

What does galling mean?
Galling means vexing, humiliating; eliciting indignation or bitterness.
What part of speech is galling?
Galling can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near galling in the dictionary

  1. gallinacin
  2. gallinacins
  3. Gallinas
  4. Gallinazo
  5. galline
  6. galling
  7. gallingale
  8. gallingales
  9. gallingly
  10. gallingness
  11. gallings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: galling (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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