▪ I. gully, n.1
(ˈgʌlɪ)
Also gulley.
[Prob. an alteration of gullet, or a phonetic adoption of its original (F. goulet).]
† 1. The gullet. Obs.
| 1538 Elyot Dict., Gurgulio, the gully or gargylle of the throote or throote bolle. 1552 Huloet, Gullet, gullye or gargle of the throte. |
2. a. A channel or ravine worn in the earth by the action of water,
esp. in a mountain or hill side.
| 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 49 There were many gullies in the way, which were impassable. 1670 Rec. Providence (U.S.) (1892) I. 15 Eighty Ackors of this land beginning betweene two Gulleys which Jshu into the aforsaid west River. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 258 Gulleys made by the water. 1784 J. Belknap Tour White Mts. (1876) 14 note, The N.W. wind blows it [snow] over the tops of the mountains, and drives it into the long deep vallies or gullies. 1794 S. Williams Vermont 124 Fossil shells..have been found on the sides, or rather in the gullies of the mountains. 1813 Scott Trierm. i. x, Torrents, down the gullies flung, Join'd the rude river that brawl'd on. 1816 ― Old Mort. xv, Bare hills of dark heath, intersected by deep gullies. 1865 Livingstone Zambesi xxiv. 494 The mountain torrents had worn gullies some thirty or forty feet deep. 1868 Stanley Westm. Abb. i. 5 The Walebrook..rushed with such violence down its gulley. 1879 Jefferies Wild Life in S. Co. 49 Ascending the steep sides of these gullys. 1883 Stevenson Silverado Sq. (1886) 53 A wild, red, strong gully in the mountains. |
b. transf. A furrow, groove.
| 1803 Hatchett in Phil. Trans. XCIII. 143, I found..that little furrows or gullies were soon worn in them. |
c. In extended meaning (see
quots. 1871 and 1966).
Austral. and
N.Z.| 1840 F. Mathew Founding of N.Z. (1940) ii. 48 Crossing a deep and broken gully, the sides of which are so precipitous that [etc.]. 1840 N.Z. Jrnl. XIX. 245/1 The timber grows principally in the gullies between the hills and mountains. 1846 C. Rowcroft Bushranger of Van Diemen's Land I. xi. 109 By this time they had descended into a deep and narrow gulley. 1856 Richmond-Atkinson Papers I. v. 218 Colson asked Hinde {pstlg}300 for his 37½ acres of gulley. 1862 H. C. Kendall Poems 17 The gums in the gully stand gloomy and stark. 1871 C. L. Money Knocking about in N.Z. i. 9 ‘Gully’ means nothing more than a strip of ground lying between two hills, and having a ‘creek’ flowing down its centre. 1875 Wood & Lapham Waiting for Mail 16 The terrible blasts that rushed down the narrow gully, as if through a funnel. 1908 E. J. Banfield Confessions of Beachcomber i. i. 16 Pandanus aquaticus marks the courses and curves of some of the gullies. 1911 C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling xxvii. 230 For six months they had to live in this little gully—as barren as a stone quarry and not unlike it to look at. 1930 L. G. D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs iv. 66 Harper's Homestead was on the property which belonged to Mrs. Dunlop, but further up the gully than the present house. 1938 R. Finlayson Brown Man's Burden 63 They were winding along the side of a deep gully. 1966 G. W. Turner Eng. Lang. Austral. & N.Z. iii. 57 The word valley has fallen from use in Australia and is not very common in New Zealand except in a few place-names. It is replaced by gully. |
d. Cricket. The fielding position between point and the slips; the fieldsman in this position. Also (
Austral.)
gully-slip.
| 1920 G. L. Jessop in P. F. Warner Cricket 165 The position which has been favoured in recent years by fast bowlers, whenever signs of the wicket bumping have been apparent, namely, ‘the gully’. 1921 P. F. Warner My Cricketing Life xii. 229 He [sc. A. O. Jones] was, indeed, quite exceptional as a fieldsman in any position, but especially in the slips and at short third man, or in the ‘gully’, as it is called nowadays. 1927 Observer 19 June 25/1 Macaulay fell to a dazzling left-hand catch high up in the gully by Kidd. 1954 J. H. Fingleton Ashes crown Year 43 Morris..found himself caught high at gully-slip. 1955 Times 12 July 12/4 Ralph was indeed unlucky, for Arnold with good intentions of not wasting time, cut him straight into gully's hands, when exit followed entry. Ibid. 15 July 3/3 At 252 Insole was caught in the gully slashing at Titmus. 1970 [see edge v.1 7]. |
3. A narrow and deep artificial watercourse; a deep gutter, drain, or sink.
| 1789 G. White Selborne xviii. (1853) 78 The gulleys that were cut for watering the meadows. 1882 Worc. Exhib. Catal. iii. 16 Large street gullies. 1883 Times 21 Aug. 6/3 The watering of the streets and flushing of the gullies. |
4. attrib., as (sense 2)
gully-bottom; (sense 3)
gully-emptier,
gully-grate,
gully-grating,
gully-trap,
gully-wind;
gully-drain (see
quot.; hence
gully-drainage,
gully-drain vb.);
gully erosion, the erosion of soil by rain-water forming channels;
gully-hole, the opening from the street into a drain or sewer;
gully-raker Austral., (
a) a cattle-thief; (
b) a cattle-whip; so
gully-raking, cattle-thieving;
gully-squall Naut., a violent gust of wind from the mountain ravines of Central America;
gully-washer U.S., a heavy downpour.
| 1917 J. Masefield Old Front Line 49 He..tunnelled long living rooms, both above and below the *gully-bottom. 1965 F. Sargeson Mem. Peon iv. 58 Finally you reached the gully-bottom. |
| 1850 Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. iii. 17 The very *gully-drains. 1851–61 Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 398 The Gully-drain is a drain generally of earthen-ware piping, curving from the side of the street to an opening in the top or side of the sewer, and is the means of communication between the sewer and the gully-hole. |
| Ibid. 399 The old street channels for *gully drainage. |
| Ibid. 401 Taking only 1200 miles of public way as *gully-drained. |
| 1929 Even. News 18 Nov. 16/4 Following a collision between an L.C.C. tramcar and a Fulham Borough Council *gulley-emptier in the Fulham Palace⁓road, S.W., to-day, passengers in the tramcar received a showerbath from the contents of the gulley-emptier, which poured into the tramcar. |
| 1928 Proc. 1st. Internat. Congr. Soil Sci. VI. 755 That phase of normal *gully erosion which gradually cuts out V-shaped ravines usually not excessively deep. 1937 E. J. Russell Soil Conditions & Plant Growth (ed. 7) viii. 579 The erosion takes two forms: sheet erosion, which goes on slowly and evenly over a large area, and gulley erosion, which is more localised and washes out the soil into great gulleys or ravines. |
| 1861 F. Nightingale Nursing 20 Water-closet, sink, or *gully-grate. |
| 1905 Daily Chron. 7 Aug. 6/5 Volumes of steam issued through the *gully grating. |
| 1726 Kersey, *Gully-Hole, a Place at the Grate or Entrance of the Street-Canals for a Passage into the Common Shore. 1746 Brit. Mag. 346 The Water is let down out of the Street, by what we call the Gully-Hole. 1762 Gentl. Mag. 154 Mrs. Myltystre was hanged, and thrown into the gully-hole to rot. 1885–8 Fagge & Pye-Smith Princ. Med. (ed. 2) I. 192 The boys from that house were in the habit of playing every day in a yard, in which there were gully-holes leading from the sewer. |
| 1847 Settlers & Convicts xii. 261 This practice derives its name from the circumstances of cattle straying..into the bush..and breeding there..the *gully-rakers eventually driving them out and branding [them]..with their own brands. 1881 A. C. Grant Bush Life Queensld. iv. (1882) 30 The driver appealing occasionally to some bullock or other by name, following up his admonition by a sweeping cut of his ‘gully-raker’. |
| 1847 Settlers & Convicts xii. 253 By a process technically called ‘*gully-raking’, he had quadrupled the little herd his father gave him. |
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Gully squall. Well known off Tropical America in the Pacific, particularly abreast of the lakes of Leon, Nicaragua, &c. |
| 1892 T. B. F. Eminson Epid. Pneumonia Scotter 36 The sewer..had been opened to put down a *gully-trap. |
| 1903 J. Fox Little Shepherd iv. 59 Send us, not a gentle sizzle-sozzle, but a sod-soaker, a *gully-washer. Give us a tide, O Lord! 1961 Amer. Speech XXXVI. 153 An old farmer looked at the threatening sky..and said, ‘It's goin' to be a gully washer and a chunk floater.’ 1969 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 22 Aug. 4/6 Other two-word names for a heavy rain [are]..gully-washer, [etc.]. |
| 1869 E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 315 When there are marsh or *gully winds to be avoided. |
▪ II. gully, n.2 Sc. and
north. (
ˈgʌlɪ)
Also 8
gooly, 9
gulley.
[Of obscure etymology; Brockett's conjecture (quot. 1825) seems not impossible, though sense 1 of gully n.1 is scantily authenticated.] A large knife. (The sense given in
quot. 1653, if it existed, is obsolete.)
| 1582 A. Melville in W. Morison Melville (1898) v. 46 [Spoke of the King's claim to spiritual authority as a ‘bludie gullie’ thrust into the Commonwealth]. 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. xxvii. 129 Can you tell with what instruments they did it? with faire gullies [printed gullics], which are little hulchback't demi-knives, the iron toole whereof is two inches long, and the wooden handle one inch thick, and three inches in length, wherewith the little boyes in our countrey cut ripe walnuts in two. [The description is in the orig.; the Fr. word is gouet.] 1674–91 Ray N.C. Words 135 A Gully, a large household Knife. 1719 Ramsay Fam. Epist. Answ. iii. 12 Had he [Julius Cæsar] 'midst his glories sheath'd his gooly, And kiss'd his wife. 1785 Burns Death & Dr. Hornbook ix, I red ye weel, tak care o' skaith, See there 's a gully! 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xvii, Folk kill wi' the tongue as weel as wi' the hand—wi' the word as weel as wi' the gulley! 1824 ― St. Ronan's xiv, The poor simple bairn..had nae mair knowledge of the wickedness of human nature than a calf has of a flesher's gully. 1825 Brockett N.C. Words, Gulley, a large knife used in farm houses, principally to cut bread, cheese, &c. for the family. Perhaps originally a butcher's, for the gullet. 1883 Stevenson Treas. Isl. v. xxiii, I..took out my gully{ddd}and cut one strand after another. |
b. attrib., as
gully-knife.
| 1725 Willie Winkie's Test. in Whitelaw Bk. Sc. Song (1875) 540/1 A gullie-knife and a horse-wand. 1876 Smiles Sc. Natur. vi. (ed. 4) 102 He had neither his gun, nor even his gully knife with him. |
▪ III. gully, n.3 (
ˈgʌlɪ)
Also
gulley.
An iron tram-plate or -rail.
| 1800 Trans. Soc. Arts XVIII. 271 These waggon-ways are supplied with iron rails, or gullies, laid on sleepers. 1841 S. C. Brees Gloss. Civil Engin., Gullies, a term sometimes applied to iron tram-plates or rails. |
▪ IV. gully, v. (
ˈgʌlɪ)
[f. gully n.1] trans. To make gullies or deep channels in; to form (channels) by the action of water. Also with
out. Hence
ˈgullying vbl. n.| 1775 H. Knox in Sparks Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853) I. 87 Without sledding, the roads are so much gullied, that it will be impossible to move a step. 1787 M. Cutler in Life, Jrnls. & Corr. (1888) I. 245 The road in many places was gullied several feet deep in this stone. 1848 Buckley Iliad 43 The wintry torrent had broken away part of the road, and gullied the whole place. 1862 Dana Man. Geol. iii. 604 Turf protects earthy slopes from the action of rills that would gully out a bare surface. 1882 Harper's Mag. Dec. 7 Stripped of soil and gullied by the action of rapid water. 1897 Outing (U.S.) XXX. 164/1 The current had gullied out deep holes around the big bowlders. 1928 Proc. 1st. Internat. Congr. Soil Sci. VI. 755 The same general class of wide-spread carving-out of the soil material or deep gullying that characterizes the devastation of Memphis. 1958 New Biol. XXV. 51 The flooding in Devon was associated with gullying and soil erosion and much of upland Britain is scarred with gullies similar to those formed so dramatically in 1953. 1963 D. W. & E. E. Humphries tr. Termier's Erosion & Sedimentation i. 20 In contrast, the equatorial climate which is constantly hot and humid tends to remove soil by gullying. |