gallows
Utterly; veryUtterly; very.
Recorded US: Neskaya, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
UK/ˈɡæləʊz/US/ˈɡæloʊz/
Meaning
1 senses(archaic, colloquial, not comparable)Utterly; very.
Origin
From Middle English galwes, galewes, plural of galwe, galowe, from Old English galga, gealFrom Middle English galwes, galewes, plural of galwe, galowe, from Old English galga, gealga, from Proto-West Germanic *galgō, from Proto-Germanic *galgô, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰalgʰ-, *ǵʰalg- (“long switch, rod, shaft, pole, perch”). The plural construction probably refers to the vertical and horizontal beams.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.