gaffs

1. a stick with a hook or barbed spear, for landing large fish.
2. a spar to which the head of a fore-and-aft sail is bent.

   a gaff-rigged cutter

1. seize or impale with a gaff.

   the whales are gaffed, speared, or knifed to death

Middle English: from Provençal gaf ‘hook’; related to gaffe.

1. rough treatment or criticism.

   if wages increase, perhaps we can stand the gaff

early 19th century (in the senses ‘outcry; nonsense’ and in the phrase blow the gaff ‘let out a secret’): of unknown origin.

1. a house, flat, or other building, especially as being a person's home.

   Gav's new gaff is in McDonald Road

mid 18th century (in sense ‘a fair’): of unknown origin.