From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgallerygal‧le‧ry /ˈɡæləri/ ●●○ W3 noun (plural galleries) [countable] 1 a) AVPa large building where people can see famous pieces of art an exhibition of African art at the Hayward Gallery b) AVSHOP/STOREa small privately owned shop or studio where you can see and buy pieces of art2 a) TBBAPan upper floor or balcony built on an inner wall of a hall, theatre, or church, from which people can watch a performance, discussion etc the public gallery in Congressin the gallery We could only afford seats up in the gallery. b) the galleryAP the people sitting in a gallery3 → play to the gallery4 TPGHEa level passage under the ground in a mine or cave → press gallery, shooting galleryCOLLOCATIONSADJECTIVES/NOUN + galleryan art gallerya guide to the city's museums and art galleriesa picture/portrait galleryThe picture gallery is full of treasures.a private gallery (=owned by a private person)The portrait was to be sold to a private gallery in the United States.the national gallery (=owned by the country)Edinburgh has three national galleries.verbsvisit/go to a galleryThe children visited the gallery on a school trip.a painting hangs in a galleryMany of her pictures hang in the National Gallery of Canada.a gallery is showing/exhibiting somethingThe gallery is showing a series of watercolour works.exhibit something in/at a galleryIt was the first time that the paintings had been exhibited in a gallery.gallery + NOUNgallery space (=area for displaying art )She exhibited her work in the gallery space of the Institute of Art and Technology.
Examples from the Corpus
gallery• Heroes of change, locally and internationally, will be honored in a gallery of photography, artwork, paintings and sculpture.• He owns and operates an art gallery in downtown Phoenix that shows only his own work.• One of the rooms has been made into a small modern art gallery.• They asked if I would like to be gallery secretary.• a craft gallery downtown• There were four galleries here, of which two remain.• Our steps echo over the marble floors, through the cavernous rooms and long galleries.• We spent the afternoon looking at paintings in the National Gallery.• The museum's new gallery will be named after the Andersons.• the National Portrait Gallery in Washington• the public gallery in Congress• Burglars broke into the gallery shortly after the Erte was hung.• Dale is showing some of his work in one of the galleries downtown.• It's a kind of work encountered with more and more frequency in New York galleries these days.Origin gallery (1400-1500) Medieval Latin galeria, perhaps from galilaea “small room for praying in inside a church”, probably from Galilaea “Galilee”, area in Palestine where Christ traveled and taught 