English · Idiom Historical

the gall of pigeons

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

The story goes that Eigeons have no gall, because the dove sent -om the ark by Noah burst its gall out of grief, and none of the pigeon family has had a gall ever since.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

một câu chuyện rằng bồ câu không có túi mật

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “the gall of pigeons” mean?

The story goes that Eigeons have no gall, because the dove sent -om the ark by Noah burst its gall out of grief, and none of the pigeon family has had a gall ever since.

Is “the gall of pigeons” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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