Word.ws English Dictionary

goatish

goatish adjective: goaty, goatlike.

Adjective

goatish (comparative more goatish, superlative most goatish)

  1. Goaty, goatlike.
    • An admirable evasion of whore-master man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star!c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    • Many are the men, of every rank, quality, and degree here, who would much rather riot in these goatish embraces, than share the pure and lawful bliss derived from matrimonial, mutual love.1774, Edward Long, chapter XIII, in The History of Jamaica, volume II, London: Lowndes, page 328

Examples of goatish in a sentence

  • Though I call them satyrs, they showed nothing of the satyr except little horns and a goatish head; all the rest of their form was human.1887, Benvenuto Cellini, translated by John Addington Symonds, Autobiography, New York: P.F. Collier & Son, published 1910, Book 2, Chapter...
  • He went through a pantomime of examining a joint of meat, with goatish sniffs.1934, George Orwell, chapter 7, in Burmese Days:
  • She was perfumed, and beside the wave of her perfume, Mendel perceived uneasily the heavy, goatish odor of Pavel's sweating body.1985, Primo Levi, chapter 12, in William Weaver, transl., If Not Now, When?, New York: Summit, page 330:

Forms of goatish

comparativemore goatish
superlativemost goatish

Origin of goatish

From goat + -ish.

Words formed from goatish

Questions about goatish

What does goatish mean?
Goatish means goaty, goatlike.
How do you use goatish in a sentence?
Though I call them satyrs, they showed nothing of the satyr except little horns and a goatish head; all the rest of their form was human.
What part of speech is goatish?
Goatish is an adjective.

Words near goatish in the dictionary

  1. goaties
  2. goatiest
  3. goatiness
  4. goating
  5. goatings
  6. goatish
  7. goatishly
  8. goatishness
  9. goatkeeper
  10. goatkeepers
  11. goatkind

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: goatish (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-goatish.wav.

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