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—galleried, adj. —gallerylike, adj./gal"euh ree, gal"ree/, n., pl. galleries.1. a raised area, often having a stepped or sloping floor, in a theater, church, or other public building to accommodate spectators, exhibits, etc.2. the uppermost of such areas in a theater, usually containing the cheapest seats.3. the occupants of such an area in a theater.4. the general public, esp. when regarded as having popular or uncultivated tastes.5. any group of spectators or observers, as at a golf match, a Congressional session, etc.6. a room, series of rooms, or building devoted to the exhibition and often the sale of works of art.7. a long covered area, narrow and open at one or both sides, used esp. as a walk or corridor.8. Chiefly South Atlantic States. a long porch or portico; veranda.9. a long, relatively narrow room, esp. one for public use.10. a corridor, esp. one having architectural importance through its scale or decorative treatment.11. a raised, balconylike platform or passageway running along the exterior wall of a building inside or outside.12. a large room or building used for photography, target practice, or other special purposes: a shooting gallery.13. a collection of art for exhibition.14. Theat. a narrow, raised platform located beyond the acting area, used by stagehands or technicians to stand on when working.15. Naut. a projecting balcony or structure on the quarter or stern of a vessel.16. Furniture. an ornamental railing or cresting surrounding the top of a table, stand, desk, etc.17. Mining. a level or drift.18. a small tunnel in a dam, mine, or rock, for various purposes, as inspection or drainage.19. a passageway made by an animal.20. Fort. Obs. an underground or covered passage to another part of a fortified position.21. play to the gallery, to attempt to appeal to the popular taste, as opposed to a more refined or esoteric taste: Movies, though still playing mainly to the gallery, have taken their place as a significant art form.[1400-50; late ME < OF galerie < ML galeria, by dissimilation or suffix replacement from galilea, galilaea GALILEE]
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IIt may be recessed into a wall or elevated on columns or corbels, and it often serves as a passageway. Within an interior, a gallery may be a platform or upper floor projecting from a wall (e.g., in a legislative house) with seating for spectators. In a church nave, the long, narrow platforms supported by colonnades are called tribune galleries. In a theatre, the gallery is the highest balcony and generally has the cheapest seats. Galleries appeared in Renaissance houses as long, narrow rooms used both as promenades and to exhibit art. The modern art gallery is their descendant.II(as used in expressions)* * *
in architecture, any covered passage that is open at one side, such as a portico or a colonnade. More specifically, in late medieval and Renaissance Italian architecture, it is a narrow balcony or platform running the length of a wall. In Romanesque architecture, especially in Italy and Germany, an arcaded wall-passage on the outside of a structure is known as a dwarf gallery.Facing into a structure, a gallery may either be set into the thickness of a wall at ground level or be elevated and supported on columns or corbels. It would function as a communicating passage. Within an interior space a gallery may be a platform projecting from a wall, as in the example of a musicians' gallery, or may be a second-story opening onto a large interior area, such as the gallery in a church intended to provide additional seating. In legislative houses such a gallery might be intended for spectators or the press. In theatres the gallery is the highest balcony and generally contains the least expensive seats.Galleries appear as long, narrow rooms in substantial Renaissance houses and palaces, where they were used as promenades and to exhibit art. In Elizabethan and Jacobean houses these were called long galleries. The modern term art gallery is derived from this usage.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
