goose

/ɡuːs/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ɡʉ͡ws/

goose noun: 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.

Image: JJ Harrison, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

goose (countable and uncountable, plural geese)

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.
- There is a flock of geese on the pond.
- The goose, reputed to possess high generative power, was sacred to Priapus.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 198
(strictly) A female 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
(uncountable) The flesh of the goose used as food.
- 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...1843, Charles Dickens, “Stave 3: The Second of the Three Spirits”, in A Christmas Carol
(slang, plural geese or gooses) A silly person.
- I'm sorry for you, but you're such a goose.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
- Have you stopped to think, you gooses, that Andy might not wish you to give it away?1994, Barbara Benedict, Love and Honor, New York, N.Y.: Jove Books, →ISBN, page 65
(archaic) A tailor's iron, heated in live coals or embers, used to press fabrics.
- Come in, tailor. Here you may roast your goose.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...
Synonyms:

goose iron
(South Africa, dated, slang) A young woman or girlfriend.
(historical, uncountable) 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.

Verb

goose (third-person singular simple present gooses, present participle goosing, simple past and past participle goosed)

(slang, transitive) To sharply poke or pinch the buttocks, or prod between the buttocks (of a person).
- She greeted Miss Lonelyhearts, then took hold of her husband and shook the breath out of him. When he was quiet, she dragged him into their apartment. Miss Lonelyhearts followed and as he passed her in the dark foyer, she goosed him and laughed.1933, Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts
- The witness stand. Goldminers giving evidence, sure he's violent didn't I see him with my own peepers chasing those poor kids up on the roof and he goosed my wife last Christmas. Violently. Just a forceful nudge of the knee.1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 36
(slang, transitive) To stimulate; to spur.
- Almost everyone in McKay’s impossibly starry cast feels like they’re jumping into the SNL host role, game for some light comedic lifting while waiting for the pros to show up and goose the laughs.2021 December 7, Jesse Hassenger, “Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence cope with disaster in the despairing satire Don’t Look Up”, in AV Club
- The ensuing snarknado also seemed to goose the TV ratings. Hundreds of thousands of viewers switched on the movie after it began, suggesting that they’d gotten wind through Twitter of the bananas spectacle that was unfolding.2023 July 10, James Poniewozik, “The Twitter Watch Party Is Over”, in The New York Times
(slang, transitive) To gently accelerate (a vehicle); to give repeated, small taps on the accelerator of (a vehicle); to feather the throttle of (a vehicle).
(UK, slang) Of private-hire taxi drivers, to pick up a passenger who has not booked a cab, in violation of UK licensing conditions.
(slang, transitive) To hiss (a performer) off the stage.

Proper noun capitalized: Goose

Goose

A surname.

goose meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

goose in Hindi

a grazing waterfowl of the family Anatidae: हंस hans

goose in Tamil

a grazing waterfowl of the family Anatidae: வாத்து vāttu

goose in Marathi

goose: हंस hausa

goose in Urdu

a grazing waterfowl of the family Anatidae: ہنس hans

More languagesFewer languages

goose in Bengali: হাঁস hãs
goose in Telugu: బాతు bātu, పెద్దబాతు peddabātu
goose in Malayalam: വാത്ത vātta
goose in Kannada: ಬಾತುಕೋಳಿ
goose in Punjabi: ਹੰਸ hansă, ਬਤਕ batak
goose in Sanskrit: हंस haṃsa
goose in Assamese: ৰাজহাঁহ razhãh
goose in Nepali: राजहंस rājahansa
goose in Pashto: بته bata
goose in Tagalog: gansa
goose in Arabic: إِوَزّ ʔiwazz, وَزّ wazz
goose in Malay: angsa, soang, rangsa
goose in Indonesian: angsa
goose in Persian: غاز ġâz
goose in Thai: ห่าน hàan
goose in Vietnamese: ngỗng
goose in Myanmar: ငန်း ngan:
Kashmiri: اَسمٲنؠ أنٛز asmạ̄n' ạnz

Examples of goose in a sentence

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.2019, Julia London, The Princess Plan, HQN Books, →ISBN:
Here are the three strange men have exposed themselves to me, the two obscene phone callers, the time I was goosed by an employer.1991 August 24, Artemis OakGrove, “I Deserve A Medal”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 6, page 5:
In some ways, Joe Biden’s administration goosed the cycle.2026 April 20, Amit Seru, “The Economic Cost of Donald Trump’s Constant Chaos”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

All 40 example sentences with goose

Synonyms of goose

goose iron

Forms of goose

Noun
plural	geese
Verb
third-person singular present	gooses
present participle	goosing
past participle	goosed
past	goosed

Plural of goose: geese

Origin of goose

PIE word *ǵʰh₂éns Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns Proto-Germanic *gans Old English gōs Middle English gos English goose 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.

Words formed from goose

Phrases with goose

84 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with goose

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about goose

What does goose mean?: Goose means 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.
What is goose in Hindi?: Goose in Hindi is हंस (hans). See Goose meaning in Hindi.
How do you use goose in a sentence?: 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.
What part of speech is goose?: Goose can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce goose?: Goose is pronounced /ɡuːs/ (UK).
What is the plural of goose?: The plural of goose is geese.

Words near goose in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: goose (page history and authors); Goose (page history and authors); हंस (Marathi) (page history and authors); വാത്ത (Malayalam) (page history and authors); goose (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਬਤਕ (Punjabi) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-goose.ogg, En-us-goose.ogg.

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