Word.ws English Dictionary

goit

/ɡɔɪt/

goit noun: a small artificial channel carrying water. Usually used with respect to channels built to feed mills.

Noun (1)

goit (plural goits)

  1. (UK, Yorkshire and Lancashire) A small artificial channel carrying water. Usually used with respect to channels built to feed mills.
    • We use watter as goes daan t'goit yonder for t'grinnelstuns.

Noun (2)

goit (plural goits)

  1. (derogatory, informal) A fool.

Forms of goit

pluralgoits

Origin of goit

From Middle English gote (“channel, stream”), from Old English *gotu (“channel, gutter, drain”), from Proto-Germanic *gutō (“gutter, drain”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰew- (“to pour”). Cognate with Scots gote, goit, goate (“trench, ditch, watercourse”), Dutch goot (“gutter”), Middle Low German gote (“ditch”). More at gote.

Popularised by the television series Red Dwarf. Possibly a shortening of goitre (i.e. a pain in the neck), or from git.

Words that rhyme with goit

Questions about goit

What does goit mean?
Goit means a small artificial channel carrying water. Usually used with respect to channels built to feed mills.
What part of speech is goit?
Goit is a noun.
How do you pronounce goit?
Goit is pronounced /ɡɔɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of goit?
The plural of goit is goits.

Words near goit in the dictionary

  1. goings-on
  2. goings-over
  3. Goins
  4. Goinses
  5. Goirle
  6. goit
  7. goita
  8. goiter
  9. goiter belt
  10. goitered
  11. goitered gazelle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: goit (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-goit.wav.

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