goat

UK/ɡəʊt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northumbria/ɡoːt/

goat noun: any ruminant of the genus Capra. Also the alternative letter-case form of GOAT.

Image: Fir0002, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

goat (countable and uncountable, plural goats)

Any ruminant of the genus Capra.
- The first thing that greets you on entering the church is a notice asking you not to vex the goat, since it renders valuable service in keeping the churchyard tidy.1980, AA book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 164
- Folkestone: Network Rail and the White Cliffs Countryside Project have procured a herd of goats to keep vegetation on the slopes of Folkestone Warren under control, and to encourage rare species.2025 February 5, Howard Johnston, “Regional News: Southern”, in RAIL, number 1028, page 22
1. (uncountable) The meat of these animals.
  - Hungrily, by firelight, we set to with damper and cold goat washed down by hot tea.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 239
  - Joshua could not stop himself from scooping more goat on his plate: Paul had cooked it so long that the meat seemed to melt like hot, syrupy candy in his mouth. Joshua remembered goat as a stringy dark meat, but the red spicy mass before him was nothing like he recalled.2008, Jesmyn Ward, Where the Line Bleeds, Bloomsbury (2018), page 157
(slang) A lecherous man.
(informal) A scapegoat.
- Fernando Rodney, the goat in Sunday's 10th inning loss to Tampa Bay, threw three nearly perfect innings in relief on Tuesday after being demoted from the closer role.2008 August 6, “Tigers already miss Jones”, in Royal Oak Daily Tribune, Michigan
- Tony Fernández, who has worn hero's laurels throughout the postseason including earlier in this seventh game of the World Series, now cruel as it may seem, perhaps being fitted for goat horns.1997, "1997 World Series", Game 7, bottom 11th inning, TV broadcast on NBC Sports, early morning October 27, 1997; words by Bob Costas
(slang) A Pontiac GTO car.
(speech recognition) A person who is not easily understood by a speech recognition system; contrasted with sheep.
A fool, loser, or object of ridicule.
- Samaurez said over his shoulder, “In fact, I missed being the class goat by only three places.” Gwen patted his arm, “But, look H-Two, George Pickett was the goat and see how famous he became.”2008, Ned B. Ricks, Trusting Appearances: Things Are Not Always as They Seem, page 259
- ...Butch was the goat in that deal and innocent of the trap he was placed in.2013, Larry Pointer, In Search of Butch Cassidy
(roller derby) A blocker who is isolated behind the opposing team's blockers, so as to slow down the pack.

Verb

goat (third-person singular simple present goats, present participle goating, simple past and past participle goated)

(transitive) To allow goats to feed on.
- Rape and clover has yielded 283 sheep days of pasture, practically dry weather […] For the coming year it is planned to goat this area continuously1918, Agricultural Experiment Station, Director's Biennial Report, page 51
(transitive) To scapegoat.
- John Rocker, meanwhile, was spared from getting goated because he didn't blow a save2001 July 15, “A worthy Rusch to judgment”, in USA Today
(transitive, roller derby) To isolate (an opposing blocker) behind one's own blockers, so as to slow down the pack.

Noun (2) capitalized: GOAT

GOAT (plural GOATs)

(abbreviation, acronym, slang) Acronym of greatest of all time.
- Messi is the GOAT of football.
- Still wicked as Aleister Crowley, niggas know me well
  For heaven's sake, I'm the GOAT, you haters can go to hell2016, “Really Doe”, in Atrocity Exhibition, performed by Danny Brown ft. Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, and Earl Sweatshirt, via Spotify
(UK, informal) A member of the "government of all the talents" proposed by British prime minister Gordon Brown.
- The best talents; of course he was a GOAT.2009, Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee, Good government: eighth report of session 2008-09, volume 2
- Lord Jones of Birmingham, aka Digby Jones, the former director general of the CBI, said that in his year in the government as a so-called GOAT (a member of the Government Of All The Talents) he found the civil service to be 'honest, stuffed full of decent people who work hard'.2010, Philip Johnston, Bad Laws

Proper noun capitalized: Goat

the Goat

The constellation and zodiacal sign Capricornus.
- The Balance shows redemption’s need;
  The Scorpion wounds He must endure;
  The Archer tells His coming sure;
  The Goat, His death in sacrifice[.]1862, [Frances Rolleston], Mazzaroth, or, The Constellations: Part III, London: Rivingtons, page 7
- Now, if you went down into the forest where the spring gum-tips gleam gold and ruby in whatever sunshine, Heaven thinks fit to apportion at this season to residents of the Dandenongs (who surely were all born Aquarians) what sign of the Zodiac would you expect to meet? Not Leo the Lion or...1947 November 14, Mountain District Free Press and Frentree Gully News, Tecoma, Vic., page 8, column 2
Synonyms:

Horned Goat, Sea-goat
The eighth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar.

Noun (3) capitalized: GoAT

GoAT

(alternative) Alternative form of GOAT.

Noun (4) capitalized: GoaT

GoaT

(alternative) Alternative form of GOAT.

Also used as

goat is also the alternative letter-case form of GOAT.

goat is also the alternative form of gote.

goat meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

goat in Tamil

animal: வெள்ளாடு veḷḷāṭu, ஆடு āṭu

goat in Urdu

animal: بَکْری bakrī, بُز buz, بَکْرا bakrā

More languagesFewer languages

goat in Bengali: ছাগল chagol, বকরা bokra
goat in Telugu: మేక mēka
goat in Malayalam: ആട് āṭŭ
goat in Kannada: ಮೇಕೆ mēke
goat in Punjabi: ਬੱਕਰੀ bakkarī
goat in Gujarati: બકરી bakrī
goat in Odia: ଛେଳି cheḷi
goat in Sanskrit: अजा ajā, अज aja, छाग chāga
goat in Sinhala: ළුළුවා ḷuḷuwā
goat in Assamese: ছাগলী sagoli, ছাগল sagol, ছাগ sag
goat in Nepali: बाख्रा, बकरा, बाख्रालाई
goat in Pashto: وزه uza
goat in Tagalog: kambing
goat in Arabic: مَاعِز māʕiz, عَنْزَة ʕanza, معزة maʕza, عنزة ʕanza
goat in Malay: kambing
goat in Indonesian: kambing, bandot
goat in Persian: بُز buz
goat in Thai: แพะ pɛ́
goat in Vietnamese: dê, con dê
goat in Myanmar: ဆိတ် hcit
Dhivehi: ބަކަރި bakari
Kashmiri: ژھاوُل ċhāvul, ژھاوٕج ċhāvụj
Dzongkha: རྭ་ rwa

Examples of goat in a sentence

He treated the oxen like they didn't exist, but he treated the goat kid like a puppy.
It really gets my goat when inconsiderate people drop litter in public.
In all the day's excitement, the goats were left unherded to wander on the mountainside.

All 40 example sentences with goat

Synonyms of goat

Forms of goat

Noun
plural	goats
plural	GOATs
alternative form	G.O.A.T.
alternative form	G. O. A. T.
alternative form	GoAT
alternative form	GoaT
alternative form	Goat
alternative form	goat
alternative form	🐐
alternative form	𓃵
Verb
third-person singular present	goats
present participle	goating
past participle	goated
past	goated

Plural of goat: goats

Origin of goat

Inherited from Middle English goot, got, gat, from Old English gāt, from Proto-West Germanic *gait, from Proto-Germanic *gaits, from a substrate language. The sense of lecherous man derives from the slang expression "horny as a goat".

Abbreviation.

Words formed from goat

Phrases with goat

59 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with goat

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about goat

What does goat mean?: Goat means any ruminant of the genus Capra.
What is goat in Hindi?: Goat in Hindi is बकरी (bakrī), बकरा (bakrā). See Goat meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is goat?: Goat can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce goat?: Goat is pronounced /ɡəʊt/ (UK).
What is the plural of goat?: The plural of goat is goats.

Words near goat in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: goat (page history and authors); GOAT (page history and authors); Goat (page history and authors); GoAT (page history and authors); GoaT (page history and authors); goat (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-goat.ogg.

Cite this entry: “goat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/goat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.