goose
UK /ɡuːs/ · US /ɡus/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms geese gooses goosing goosed
- noun 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 generally bigger than ducks. “There is a flock of geese on the pond.”
- noun (strictly) A female goose.
- noun (uncountable) The flesh of the goose used as food.
- noun (slang, plural geese or gooses) A silly person.
- noun (archaic) A tailor's iron, heated in live coals or embers, used to press fabrics.
- noun (South Africa, slang, dated) A young woman or girlfriend.
- noun (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.
- verb (transitive, slang) To sharply poke or pinch the buttocks, or prod between the buttocks (of a person).
- verb (transitive, slang) To stimulate; to spur.
- verb (transitive, slang) To gently accelerate (a vehicle); to give repeated, small taps on the accelerator of (a vehicle); to feather the throttle of (a vehicle).
- verb (slang, UK) Of private-hire taxi drivers, to pick up a passenger who has not booked a cab, in violation of UK licensing conditions.
- verb (transitive, slang) To hiss (a performer) off the stage.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
goose iron fathead goof goofball bozo jackass cuckoo twat zany
Etymology
From Middle English goos, gos, from Old English gōs, from Proto-West Germanic *gans, from Proto-Germanic *gans, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns.
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, 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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Any large web-footen bird of the subfamily Anserinæ, and belonging to Anser, Branta, Chen, and several allied genera. See Anseres.
- noun Any large bird of other related families, resembling the common goose.
Etymology [OE. gos, AS. g, pl. g; akin to D. & G. gans, Icel. gas, Dan. gaas, Sw. g, Russ. guse. OIr. geiss, L. anser, for hanser, Gr. hamsa. sq. root233. Cf. Gander, Gannet, Ganza, Gosling.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “goose”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details