gallon

«gallon» in Mova's school dictionary: A unit for measuring liquids — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a gallon, gallons)

meaning for a pupil

1) A unit for measuring liquids. A UK (imperial) gallon is about 4.55 litres; a US gallon is about 3.79 litres. tree →

2) (informal, plural) A very large amount, as in «gallons of tea». tree →

sense in the lessons

A maths and measurement word: in imperial units, 1 gallon = 4 quarts = 8 pints. The USA still uses gallons for milk and petrol (gas); the UK sells fuel in litres but people still talk of «miles per gallon». In everyday talk «gallons» is an exaggeration for lots of liquid.

examples

• We bought a gallon of milk at the store. tree →
• One gallon is 8 pints. tree →
• The car does 40 miles per gallon. tree →
• A bath holds about 20 gallons of water. tree →
• If 1 gallon is 8 pints, then 3 gallons is 24 pints. tree →
• He drank gallons of lemonade at the party. tree →
• The fish tank holds ten gallons. tree →
• There were about a hundred gallons of oil in this caldron, and the fire was burning beneath it. tree →

note

Countable. Abbreviation: gal. Trap in maths problems: UK and US gallons are different sizes (UK 4.546 L, US 3.785 L); use the one the question gives. Conversions: 1 gallon = 4 quarts = 8 pints; in the US, 1 gallon = 128 fluid ounces.

In the corpora

• She sheds "gallons of tears", making a pool about four inches deep that reaches half down the hall.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «gallon» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.