goose
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: gōōs
ipa: /ɡuːs/
ipa: /ɡus/
ipa: /ɡʉs/
ipa: /ɡʉ͡ws/
rhymes: -uːs
Forms: form: geese
Etymology: PIE word
 *ǵʰh₂éns
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, 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.
Senses: examples: text: There is a flock of geese on the pond.
text: The goose, reputed to possess high generative power, was sacred to Priapus.
ref: 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 198:
text: A group of geese is called a gaggle.
ref: 2019 June 6, “A gaggle, a confusion and a conspiracy - bizarre animal collective group names”, in BBC:
glosses: 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.
examples: text: Ganders and geese are at their best for stock from two to ten years old. They live to a great age—it is stated to thirty or more years—but after ten years they cannot be reckoned upon as reliable assets on a farm. Two years old is the best age to mate them, making up pens of a gander and two or three geese at the New Year. It is difficult sometimes to distinguish ganders from geese. A practical man is, however, rarely mistaken.
ref: 1902, Lewis Wright, “Geese and Swans”, in The New Book of Poultry […], London; […]: Cassell and Company, Limited, page 560, column 1:
qualifier: strictly
glosses: A female goose.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1843, Charles Dickens, “Stave 3: The Second of the Three Spirits”, in A Christmas Carol:
glosses: The flesh of the goose used as food.
examples: text: I'm sorry for you, but you're such a goose.
ref: 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:
text: Have you stopped to think, you gooses, that Andy might not wish you to give it away?
ref: 1994, Barbara Benedict, Love and Honor, New York, N.Y.: Jove Books, →ISBN, page 65:
text: You gooses. I didn’t accept his proposal. Mrs Plackett did. She did because she would. Don’t you see?
ref: 2014, Julie Berry, The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place, New York, N.Y.: Roaring Brook Press, Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership, →ISBN:
text: 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.
ref: 2019, Julia London, The Princess Plan, HQN Books, →ISBN:
qualifier: plural geese or gooses
glosses: A silly person.
examples: text: Come in, tailor. Here you may roast your goose.
ref: 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, [Act II, scene iii]:
synonyms: goose iron
glosses: A tailor's iron, heated in live coals or embers, used to press fabrics.
glosses: A young woman or girlfriend.
glosses: 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
Hyponyms: gander
gosling
brant
Derived terms: word: ashy-headed goose
word: a wild goose never laid a tame egg
word: bar-headed goose
word: barnacle goose
word: bean goose
word: black goose
word: blue goose
word: Blue Goose
word: blue-winged goose
word: brand goose
word: brant goose
word: brent goose
word: road-goose
word: rot-goose
word: cackle like a goose
word: cackling goose
word: Canada goose
word: Canadian goose
word: Cape Barren goose
taxonomic: Morus bassanus
word: channel goose
word: China goose
word: Chinese goose
word: Christmas goose
word: colonial goose
word: common snow goose
word: cook somebody’s goose
word: cook someone's goose
word: cotton pygmy goose
word: deep goose foot
word: domestic goose
word: duck, duck, goose
word: dunter goose
word: dwarf goose
word: Egyptian goose
word: eider goose
word: embergoose
word: ember-goose
word: Emden goose
word: emmer-goose
word: fen goose
word: game of the goose
word: gloomy goose
word: golden goose
word: gooducken
word: goosander
word: goose barnacle
word: gooseberry
word: gooseberrying
word: gooseberryish
word: gooseberrylike
word: goose bump
word: goose-bump
word: goosebump
word: goosebumped
word: goosecap
word: goose club
word: goosedown
word: goose-drownder
word: goose-drowner
word: goose egg
word: goosefish
word: goose flesh
word: gooseflesh
word: goosefleshed
word: goose-flesher
word: goosefleshy
word: goose foot
word: goosefoot
word: goose game
word: goosegob
word: goosegog
word: goose grass
word: goosegrass
word: goose-grass
word: goose grease
word: Goose Green
word: gooseherd
word: Goose Hill
word: Goosehill
word: goosehood
word: goose iron
word: goose is cooked
word: goose-ish
word: gooseish
word: Goose Lake
word: gooseless
word: goose-like
word: gooselike
word: gooseling
word: goosely
word: gooseneck
word: goosenecked
word: goose-pen
word: goose pimple
word: goosepimple
word: goosepimply
word: goosequill
word: gooser
word: goose-rumped
word: goosery
word: gooses
word: goose saw
word: goose's foot
word: goose skin
word: gooseskin
word: goose step
word: goosestep
word: goose-step
word: goosestepper
word: goose-stepper
word: goose tongue
word: goosetongue
word: goose up
word: Goose Village
word: gooseweed
word: goose-wing
word: goose wing
word: goosewing
word: goosey
word: Goosey Goosey Gander
word: Goosey Night
word: goosie
word: goosish
word: goosy
word: Gosling
word: gray goose
word: graylag goose
word: greater snow goose
word: greater white-fronted goose
word: green goose
word: Greenland snow goose
word: green pygmy goose
word: Greenwich goose
word: grey goose
word: greylag goose
word: guck
word: gwan
word: harvest goose
word: Hawaiian goose
word: imber-goose
word: Joe the goose
word: Joe-the-goose
word: kelp goose
word: kill the goose that lays the golden eggs
word: laughing goose
word: lesser snow goose
word: lesser white-fronted goose
word: like grease through a goose
word: like shit through a goose
word: loose as a goose
word: loosey-goosey
word: loosey goosey
word: Magellan goose
word: magpie-goose
word: magpie goose
word: Malagasy sheldgoose
word: Michigoose
word: Mother Carey's goose
word: Mother Goose
word: New Zealand goose
word: one's goose is cooked
word: Orinoco goose
word: peagoose
word: pig goose
word: pink-footed bean goose
word: pink-footed goose
word: poltergoose
word: poor man's goose
word: pygmy goose
word: rat-goose
word: red-breasted goose
word: rock goose
word: rood goose
word: Ross’s goose
word: Ross’s snow goose
word: ruddy-headed goose
word: sauce for the goose
word: say boo to a goose
word: say bo to a goose
word: sea goose
word: sheldgoose
word: shoe-goose
word: silly goose
word: snow goose
word: solan goose
word: Solent goose
word: someone's goose is cooked
word: sound on the goose
word: spur-winged goose
word: spurwing goose
word: stubble goose
word: superficial goose foot
word: swan goose
word: swoose
word: Swoose
word: tailor's goose
word: the old woman is plucking her goose
word: true goose
word: tundra bean goose
word: upland goose
word: ware goose
word: what's good for the goose is good for the gander
word: what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander
word: white-fronted goose
word: white goose
word: Whitley goose
word: wild goose
word: wild-goose chase
word: wild goose chase
Related terms: dove
pigeon
squab
duck
duckling
eider
swan
swanling
anserine