gallants men attentive and polite to women.
gaming the act or practice of gambling.
Ganges a river in northern India, flowing from the Himalayas into the Bay of Bengal.
garret the space, room, or rooms just below the roof of a house; attic.
gimlet-holes holes made by a gimlet, a small boring tool with a handle at right angles to a shaft having at the other end a spiral, pointed cutting edge; here, meaning the holes bored in Gulliver's traveling box.
glimmerings of reason faint manifestations of rational thinking; here, meaning, that it might be possible for a Yahoo (Gulliver) to show some thinking ability.
hams the hocks or hind legs of a four-legged animal.
hanger a short sword, hung from the belt.
helot a member of the lowest class of serfs in ancient Sparta.
his white staff domestic staff; housekeepers.
hogshead a large barrel or cask holding from 63 to 140 gallons.
hosier a haberdasher, a person whose work or business is selling men's furnishings, such as hats, shirts, neckties, and gloves.
human ordure human excrement.
hundred leagues one league is about three nautical miles; here, meaning about 300 nautical miles.
icterics medicines for the treatment of jaundice.
in a close chair in an enclosed, one-person chair with glass windows, carried on poles by two men; a sedan chair.
in battalia in full battle dress.
indocible (indocile) not easy to teach or discipline.
Inquisition the general tribunal established in the thirteenth century by the Roman Catholic Church for the discovery and prevention of heresy and the punishment of heretics; here, meaning that Gulliver felt that if the society to which he was returning learned about where he had been and what he had seen and learned, then he would risk being treated like a heretic.
intromission insertion.
