1789. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd ed.), s.v. His GALL is not yet broken, a saying used in prisons of a man just brought in who appears melancholy and dejected. [i.e., ‘He is not yet embittered enough to care for nothing, and meet everything with a front of brass.’]
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
c. 1891. New York Sun (quoted in A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant, s.v.). ‘What do you think he had the GALL to do to-day?’ Brown: ‘He has the GALL to do anything.’ Dumley: ‘He asked me to drink with him; but he’ll never repeat the impudence.’
