dip (one's) pen in gall

To write something that conveys one's animosity, anger, or malice. The critic must have dipped his pen in gall before writing that very negative review. Hey, don't dip your pen in gall and dash off an angry message. Maybe cool off a little bit first. Well, that was a brutal performance review. The boss certainly dipped his pen in gall before filling it out.

gall and wormwood

Strong feelings of bitterness and resentment. ("Gall" is bile and "wormwood" is a bitter plant.) Ever since I lost the election for school president, I only feel gall and wormwood when I think of my unworthy opponent. We've been divorced for two years now, but I still feel gall and wormwood toward my ex-husband. Louisa, it makes perfect sense that you would feel gall and wormwood toward your neglectful parents.

have the gall to (do something)

To be bold and brazen enough to do something. I can't believe that intern had the gall to ask for a week off on her first day. A: "I can't believe their coach had the gall to pull the goalie with so much time left." B: "Yeah, but if they tie the score, he'll look like a genius." If Mandy has the gall to ask me for money after how horribly she's treated me, then she's an even worse person than I thought.

unmitigated gall

cliché Complete and outrageous insolence, impudence, or effrontery. I can't believe the unmitigated gall of the governor. How dare he blame the victims of this tragic accident for what happened?

wormwood and gall

Bitterness, resentment, disappointment, or humiliation; a figurative source of such feelings. Let me tell you, the life of a book publisher is full of wormwood and gall these days. My aunt relished cruel, embittered opinions on people and the world, seeming to prefer feasting on wormwood and gall than the many joys life brings.

have the gall to do something

Fig. to have sufficient arrogance to do something. I bet you don't have the gall to argue with the mayor. Only Jane has the gall to ask the boss for a second raise this month.

dip your pen in gall

write unpleasantly or spitefully.

Gall is another word for bile, the bitter secretion of the liver; it is used in many places in the Bible as a metaphor for bitterness or affliction. See also wormwood and gall (at wormwood).

wormwood and gall

a source of bitter mortification and grief. literary

Gall is bile, a substance secreted by the liver and proverbial for its bitterness, while wormwood is an aromatic plant with a bitter taste. The expression originated in reference to various passages in the Bible, for example Lamentations 3:19: ‘Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall’.

unmitigated gall

Absolute impudence, out-and-out effrontery. The use of gall, which strictly speaking means the liver’s secretion, or bile, and its extension to bitterness of any kind, dates from about a.d. 1000. In late nineteenth-century America, however, it began to be used in the sense of “nerve” or “brazenness.” Its frequent pairing with unmitigated, meaning “unmodified” or “intense,” occurred in the twentieth century.