gal, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

gal n.

[SE girl]

1. a young woman, a woman.

1795		B. Dearborn Columbian Grammar 135: Improprieties, commonly called Vulgarisms, [include] ... Gal for girl [OED].
1804		T.G. Fessenden ‘Country Lovers’ Poems 94: At length came in the Deacon’s Sal / From milking at he barn, / And faith she is as good a gal / As ever twisted yarn.
1815		D. Humphreys Yankey in England 20: Help the gals! what courting! sparking! Ah, you flippant blade!
1825		J.K. Paulding John Bull in America 162: Mind the music and the step, / And with the gals be handy.
1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 6 Jan. 76: None of the ‘gals,’ as Tom called them, would sit next to him.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 27 Nov. 2/6: Nor did he abuse or use improper language [...] to the servant ‘gal’.
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London I (2nd series) 46: I wish you wouldn’t loiter to stare at the gals so, captain.
1850		W.C. Hall ‘Mike Hooter’s Bar Story’ Spirit of the Times 26 Jan. (N.Y.) 581: I told my gal Sal to fill my privit tickler full o’ the old ‘raw’.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 143: It was a regular scrummage for the gals.
1868		H.L. Williams Black-Eyed Beauty 22: You gals spend enough to know something about earning cash.
1875		M. Thompson Hoosier Mosaics 14: A leetle more’n a year ago a gal and her father come here and stopped at this ’ere hotel.
1882		‘Blooming Aesthetic’ in Rag 30 Sept. n.p.: A slosher-of-pals, / A spooning-with-gals, / An ought-to-be-blowed young man.
1892		Albert Chevalier ‘Our Little Nipper’ 🎵 ’E’ll stick up like a Briton for ’is pals An’ ain’t ’e just a terror with the gals.
1900		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘A Dangerous Dad’ Sporting Times 3 Feb. 1/4: The gal took no notice o’ me, in the least, / But she soon with the old ’un got chummy.
1910		H. Hapgood Types From City Streets 37: A bloke wat ain’t got no money can’t git a gal.
1912		Truth (Wellington) 6 Apr. 6/3: Wong [...] went for his ‘gal’, and in the struggle he picked up a couple of table knives.
1929		D. Parker ‘Big Blonde’ Penguin Dorothy Parker (1982) 200: ‘Once I had a gal,’ he said, ‘used to try and throw herself out of the window every time she got a can on. Jee-zuss.’.
1939		advert in A. Durie One Jamaica Gal 83: Jamaica Gals enjoy Red Stripe Beer!
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 25: It takes a long, tall brown-skin gal to make a preacher lay his Bible down.
1950		N. Cassady letter in Charters (1993) 203: What if the old gal wanted to pee.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 221: Gals were so easy, New Yorkers came down for a good time.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 53: Course if you don’t want your gal back.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 54: [as 1957].
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 17: I don’t go for colored guys — but what about colored gals?
1981		Observer Mag. 1 Feb. 9: What are the gals drinking?
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 234: Dan was dancing with the greaser gal.
2004		E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 72: I have a gal, does my graphics for me.
2018		Unknown T ‘Homerton B’ 🎵 It's Unknown T, Homerton B / I’ve got gyallie on me.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1999

(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 77: Brenton loathed being caught in the middle of one of Floyd’s gal tiffs.

3. a general term of address to a woman.

1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 13: Hallo, old gal, where are you stavin’ to?
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 231: Wake up, gal, and make me a toddy, / when I get drunk, I’ll screw anybody.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 58: Take a little swig, gal.
2002		D. Shaw ‘Dead Beard’ at www.asstr.org 🌐 ‘You heard what the fork and knife wants,’ I told Dionne. ‘My saucepan handle going all the way up to your derby kelly. Are you ready for the big time, gal?’.

4. see girl n.¹ (5)

5. see girl n.¹ (7)

In compounds

gal-boy (n.)

1. (US) a tomboy.

1848

Bartlett Dict. Americanisms 153: Gal-boy. In New England, a romping girl; called also a tom-boy.

2. a feminine young man, thence an effeminate (young) homosexual; a prison catamite.

1881		A.W. Tourgée ’Zouri’s Christmas vi: [The boy’s father] was afraid he was going to grow up a ‘milksop sort of gal-boy, anyhow’ [DA].
1937		A. Herndon Let Me Live 211: The men who ‘kept’ them bought them girls’ clothing and forced them to wear it at every opportunity. ‘Gal-boy’ parties were frequently given.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 76/2: Gal-boy. (Gulf State area prisons) A passive pederast or a male oral sodomist.
1954		J. Blake Ex Post Facto in Joint (1972) 45: They were known as pussyboys, galboys, fuckboys, and all had taken girls’names like Betty, Fifi, Dotty, etc., and were universally referred to as ‘she’ and ‘her’.
1969		C.B. Hopper Sex in Prison 94: He may be known as a ‘gal-boy,’ ‘kid,’ ‘punk kid,’ or simply ‘boy’.
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 204: gal-boy, n. – a homosexual.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 256: Them gal boys wont do it on their own, no.
2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Galboy: A person who plays a female role in a homosexual relationship.
2004		N. Weaver In Her Presence 286: He liked girls [...] He wasn’t going to be nobody’s gal-boy!

3. see girl n.¹ (5)

4. see girl n.¹ (7)

gal officer (n.)

(US black) a lesbian.

1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 66: All that’s in the House Without Chairs [...] are a bunch of Gal Officers, Harpies, Stewers and Chicks That Play It Hard.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
2002		The-House-of-Love.org ‘Lesbian Names’ 🌐 • femme • finger artist • fluff • fur-bumper • gal officer.

gal-pal (n.) [pal n. (1)]

(US gay) the female friend of a male homosexual.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 92: gal pal any homosexual’s female friend.

In phrases

gal a tek life (n.) [lit. ‘girl (who) takes life’ thus play on killer n. (2a)]

(W.I.) a very attractive woman.

1995

Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 23: Gal a tek life a woman who is a head turner; a very attractive or well-dressed woman.