gander
Syllables: Gan·derUK/ˈɡæn.də(ɹ)//ˈɡæn.dɚ/
gander noun: a male goose.
Noun
gander (plural ganders)
- A male goose.
- 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...1902, Lewis Wright, “Geese and Swans”, in The New Book of Poultry […], London; […]: Cassell and Company, Limited, page 560, column 1
- Old Mother Goose / When she wanted to wander / Would ride through the air / On a very fine gander.1916, Blanche Fisher Wright, The Original Mother Goose
- A fool, simpleton.
- A glance, look.
- Have a gander at what he’s written.
- I took a gander and she seemed so familiar.
- Synonyms:
- butcher's, butcher's hook
- A man living apart from his wife.
Verb
gander (third-person singular simple present ganders, present participle gandering, simple past and past participle gandered)
Proper noun capitalized: Gander
Gander
- A surname.
- A town in Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador.
gander meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Kannada
gander in Tamil
- ஆண் வாத்து
gander in Urdu
- بےوقوف, گھامڑ, ہنس, نادان, سادہ لوح
gander in Bengali
- পুরুষ রাজহাঁস
gander in Kannada
- ಗಂಡು ಬಾತುಕೋಳಿ, ಗಂಡು ವರಟೆ, ಗಂಡುಬಾತು
Examples of gander in a sentence
- Ganders and geese are at their best for stock from two to ten years old.1902, Lewis Wright, “Geese and Swans”, in The New Book of Poultry […], London; […]: Cassell and Company, Limited, page 560, column 1:
- Marta's gander was a magnificent snow-white bird: the object of terror to foxes, children and dogs.1988, Bruce Chatwin, Utz, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN; republished London: Vintage Books, 2005, →ISBN, page 50:
- As well as the church and its sexton, the market house is worth a gander, while the hop fields and orchards are "reminding one of Kent", for we are in another "Garden of England".2022 August 24, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: the Cotswold Line: Ledbury”, in RAIL, number 964, page 61:
Synonyms of gander
Forms of gander
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | ganders |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | ganders |
| present participle | gandering |
| past participle | gandered |
| past | gandered |
Origin of gander
From Middle English gandre, from Old English gandra, ganra (“gander”), from Proto-West Germanic *ganʀō, from Proto-Germanic *ganzô (“gander”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”). The meaning "a look" is derived from the image of craning one's neck like a goose. The meaning 'a man apart from his wife' is derived from a concept of a grass widower, and of calling a husband a goose. Cognates Cognate with Dutch gander (“gander”), Low German Gander, Ganner (“gander”), dialectal German Gandert (“gander”), German Ganter (“gander”), Norwegian gasse (“gander”), Icelandic gassi (“gander”). Compare also Lithuanian gañdras (“stork”). Related to goose, gannet.
* As an English surname, from the noun gander. * Also as an English surname, spelling variant of Ganter, itself related to French ganter (“to glove”). * As a north German surname, from Gandern in Brandenburg. * Also as a north German surname, from Ganter (“male goose”). * As a south German and Alemannic German surname, from Gand (“scree”). The town in Newfoundland is named after Gander Bay or Gander Lake, the names of which derive from the noun gander.
Words formed from gander
Phrases with gander
Words that rhyme with gander
Questions about gander
- What does gander mean?
- Gander means a male goose.
- What is gander in Tamil?
- Gander in Tamil is ஆண் வாத்து. See Gander meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use gander in a sentence?
- Ganders and geese are at their best for stock from two to ten years old.
- What part of speech is gander?
- Gander can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce gander?
- Gander is pronounced /ˈɡæn.də(ɹ)/ (UK).
- What is the plural of gander?
- The plural of gander is ganders.
Words near gander in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gander (page history and authors); Gander (page history and authors); gander (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gander (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gander (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gander (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-gander.ogg.
Cite this entry: “gander.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gander. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.