The dark rim round the eyes after much weeping. A peculiar appearance in a rainbow which indicates more rain at hand. “Gall” is the Anglo-Saxon gealew (yellow).
“And round about her tear-distainëd eye
Blue circles streamed, like rainbows in the sky;
These watergalls … foretell new storms.”
Shakespeare: Rape of Lucrece.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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