goose
See also: Goose
English
Etymology
From Middle English goos, gos, from Old English gōs, from Proto-West Germanic *gans, from Proto-Germanic *gans, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns.
Cognates:
Compare West Frisian goes, North Frisian göis (also Fering-Öömrang dialect North Frisian gus; Sölring dialect North Frisian Guus; Heligoland dialect North Frisian gus), Low German Goos, Low German Gans, Dutch gans, German Gans, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian gås, Icelandic gæs, Irish gé, Latin ānser, Latvian zùoss, Russian гусь (gusʹ), Albanian gatë, Ancient Greek χήν (khḗn), Avestan 𐬰𐬁 (zā), Sanskrit हंस (haṃsá)).
- The tailor's iron is so called from the likeness of the handle to the neck of a goose.
- The verb sense of pinching the buttocks is derived from a goose's inclination to bite at a retreating intruder's hindquarters.
Pronunciation
- enPR: gōōs, IPA(key): /ˈɡuːs/, [ɡʉːs], [ɡʉs]
Audio (UK) (file) Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -uːs
Noun
Canadian goose
goose (countable and uncountable, plural geese)
- Any of various grazing waterfowl of the family Anatidae, which have feathers and webbed feet and are capable of flying, swimming, and walking on land, and which are bigger than ducks.
- There is a flock of geese on the pond.
- A female goose (sense 1).
- The flesh of the goose used as food.
- 1843, Charles Dickens, “Stave 3: The Second of the Three Spirits”, in A Christmas Carol:
- Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour; Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped.
-
- (slang, plural geese or gooses) A silly person.
- 1906, Langdon Mitchell, “The New York Idea”, in John Gassner, editor, Best Plays of the Early American Theatre, 1787-1911, published 2000, →ISBN, page 430:
- I'm sorry for you, but you're such a goose.
- 1994, Barbara Benedict, Love and Honor, New York, N.Y.: Jove Books, →ISBN, page 65:
- Have you stopped to think, you gooses, that Andy might not wish you to give it away?
- 2014, Julie Berry, The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place, New York, N.Y.: Roaring Brook Press, Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership, →ISBN:
- You gooses. I didn’t accept his proposal. Mrs Plackett did. She did because she would. Don’t you see?
- 2019, Julia London, The Princess Plan, HQN Books, →ISBN:
- Surely I needn’t explain to you gooses that none of you, not even you, Caro, have the sort of dowry or connections or the appeal that such a match would require.
-
- (archaic) A tailor's iron, heated in live coals or embers, used to press fabrics.
- Synonym: goose iron
- c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iii]:
- Come in, tailor. Here you may roast your goose.
- (South Africa, slang, dated) A young woman or girlfriend.
- (uncountable, historical) An old English board game in which players moved counters along a board, earning a double move when they reached the picture of a goose.
Hypernyms
- (waterfowl): waterfowl
Hyponyms
- (waterfowl): gander, gosling
Holonyms
- (waterfowl): flock, gaggle, skein, gaggle, wedge, V
Derived terms
- Abyssinian blue-winged goose
- Abyssinian goose
- African pygmy goose
- Andean goose
- ashy-headed goose
- Australian pygmy goose
- a wild goose never laid a tame egg
- barnacle goose
- bean goose
- black goose
- blue goose
- blue-winged goose
- brand goose
- brent goose
- cackle like a goose
- cackling goose
- Canada goose
- Canadian goose
- Cape Barren goose
- Chinese goose
- Christmas goose
- colonial goose
- common snow goose
- cook somebody’s goose
- cook someone's goose
- cotton pygmy goose
- deep goose foot
- domestic goose
- duck, duck, goose
- dunter goose
- dwarf goose
- Egyptian goose
- ember-goose
- embergoose
- emmer-goose
- game of the goose
- golden goose
- gooseberry
- gooseberrying
- gooseberryish
- gooseberrylike
- goose bump
- goose-bump
- goosebump
- goosebumped
- goosecap
- goose club
- goosedown
- goose egg
- goosefish
- goose flesh
- gooseflesh
- goosefleshed
- goosefleshy
- goosefoot
- goose foot
- goose game
- goosegob
- goosegog
- goose-grass
- goosegrass
- goose grass
- Goose Green
- gooseherd
- Goose Hill, Goosehill
- goose iron
- goose is cooked
- goose-ish
- gooseish
- gooselike
- goose-like
- gooseling
- gooseneck
- goose-pen
- goosepimple
- goose pimple
- goosepimply
- goosequill
- goose-rumped
- goosery
- gooses
- goose saw
- goose's foot
- goose skin
- gooseskin
- goose-step
- goosestep
- goosestepper
- goose-stepper
- goosetongue
- goose up
- goosewing
- goose wing
- goose-wing
- goosey
- Goosey Goosey Gander
- Goosey Night
- goosish
- goosy
- gray goose
- greater snow goose
- Greenland snow goose
- green pygmy goose
- grey goose
- greylag goose
- Hawaiian goose
- imber-goose
- kelp goose
- kill the goose that lays the golden eggs
- laughing goose
- lesser snow goose
- like shit through a goose
- loosey-goosey
- loosey goosey
- Magellan goose
- magpie-goose
- magpie goose
- Malagasy sheldgoose
- Mother Carey's goose
- Mother Goose
- New Zealand goose
- one's goose is cooked
- Orinoco goose
- pink-footed bean goose
- pink-footed goose
- poor man's goose
- pygmy goose
- rood goose
- Ross’s goose
- Ross’s snow goose
- ruddy-headed goose
- sauce for the goose
- say boo to a goose
- sea goose
- sheldgoose
- silly goose
- snow goose
- solan goose
- sound on the goose
- spur-winged goose
- superficial goose foot
- swan goose
- the old woman is plucking her goose
- true goose
- upland goose
- ware goose
- what's good for the goose is good for the gander
- what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander
- white-fronted goose
- white goose
- wild goose
- wild-goose chase
- wild goose chase
Translations
a grazing waterfowl of the family Anatidae
|
See also
- dove or pigeon, squab
- duck, duckling
- eider
- swan, swanling
- anserine
Verb
goose (third-person singular simple present gooses, present participle goosing, simple past and past participle goosed)
- (transitive, slang) To sharply poke or pinch the buttocks of (a person).
- 1933, Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts:
- She greeted Miss Lonelyhearts, then took hold of her husband and shook the breath out of him. When he was quiet, she dragged him into their apartment. Miss Lonelyhearts followed and as he passed her in the dark foyer, she goosed him and laughed.
-
- (transitive) To stimulate; to spur.
- December 7 2021, Jesse Hassenger, “Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence cope with disaster in the despairing satire Don’t Look Up”, in AV Club:
- Almost everyone in McKay’s impossibly starry cast feels like they’re jumping into the SNL host role, game for some light comedic lifting while waiting for the pros to show up and goose the laughs.
-
- (transitive, slang) To gently accelerate (an automobile or machine), or give repeated small taps on the accelerator.
- (British slang) Of private-hire taxi drivers, to pick up a passenger who has not booked a cab, in violation of UK licensing conditions.
- (transitive, slang) To hiss (a performer) off the stage.