Word.ws English Dictionary

gouge

/ˈɡæʊ̯d͡ʒ/UK/ˈɡaʊ̯d͡ʒ/

gouge noun: a chisel with a curved blade for cutting or scooping channels, grooves, or holes in wood, stone, etc.

Noun

gouge (countable and uncountable, plural gouges)

  1. A chisel with a curved blade for cutting or scooping channels, grooves, or holes in wood, stone, etc.
    • The "steeple" was a little cupola, reared on the very centre of the roof, on four tall pillars of pine, that were fluted with a gouge, and loaded with mouldings.1823, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter VIII, in The Pioneers, or The Sources of the Susquehanna; […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Charles Wiley; […], →OCLC, page 118
    • The cutting [of letter blocks] is effected by chisels and gouges of the usual kinds, and is the work of a class of artizans called 'Wood letter Cutters,' or 'Wood-type Cutters.'1842 January 22, “On Printing Posting-bills”, in The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volume XI (New Series), number 626, London: Charles Knight & Co., →OCLC, page...
  2. A bookbinder's tool with a curved face, used for blind tooling or gilding.
    • In plate II. are design for two backs of books. The first figure, which presents an appearance of exceeding richness, is executed with one sole tool, viz. No. 10, and a small gouge for the sides of the lettering-piece.1835, John Andrews Arnett [pseudonym; John Hannett], “Combination of Tools”, in Bibliopegia; or, The Art of Bookbinding, in All Its Branches. […], London: Richard Groombridge; Edinburgh: Oliver and...
  3. An incising tool that cuts blanks or forms for envelopes, gloves, etc., from leather, paper, or other materials.
    • Gouge. […] A shaped incising-tool used for cutting out forms or blanks for gloves, envelopes, or other objects cut to a shape from fabric, leather, or paper.[1875, Edward H[enry] Knight, “Gouge”, in Knight’s American Mechanical Dictionary: […], volumes II (Ena–Pan), New York, N.Y.: J. B. Ford and Company, →OCLC, page 997, column 1
  4. A cut or groove, as left by a gouge or something sharp.
    • The nail left a deep gouge in the tire.
    • The planing-machine, on the contrary, uses revolving knives, which make a succession of little gouges in the wood; these gouges, which would otherwise leave the surface very irregular, are made to leave it tolerably smooth by following one another so closely that the gouges become one long gouge or...1878 April, “How Lead-pencils are Made”, in J[osiah] G[ilbert] Holland, editor, Scribner’s Monthly, an Illustrated Magazine for the People, volume XV, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Scribner & Co., […]...
  5. (colloquial) An act of gouging.
  6. (slang) A cheat, a fraud; an imposition.
    Synonyms:
    swindle
  7. (slang) An impostor.
  8. Soft material lying between the wall of a vein and the solid vein of ore.
    • At some of the mines on the great Mother Lode, where hundreds of tons are not unfrequently thrown down at a blast, and where a wide, soft "gouge" along one wall enables the minder to keep two or three sides of the rock free, and give the powder the greatest opportunity to "lift" without waste of...1869, Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond, “Giant Powder and Common Powder”, in The Mines of the West: A Report to the Secretary of the Treasury, New York, N.Y.: J. B. Ford and Company […], →OCLC, page 34
    • The geologic relations seen at the surface continue underground, but in addition 5 to 10 feet of gouge, dipping 68°E, is found to separate the serpentine from the ore zone. The gouge is not sufficiently resistant to erosion to crop out. […] A "bull" quartz vein occurs in places along the contact of...1930, Edward Wilber Berry, “Systematic Descriptions”, in Revision of the Lower Eocene Wilcox Flora of the Southeastern States: With Descriptions of New Species, Chiefly from Tennessee and Kentucky...
  9. (US, slang, uncountable) Information.
    • As all naval aviators have learned at one time or another in their careers, “There's plenty of bad gouge out there," and it has, does, and will get the unwary fliers in trouble.2005, Jay A. Stout, To Be a U.S. Naval Aviator, page 63
    • The Marines and “Coasties” (the nickname for Coast Guard students) were reputed to have good gouge on each class's test. Rumor had it that the Marines had inside information on the questions for the next day's FRR test, […]2013, Douglas Waller, Air Warriors: The Inside Story of the Making of a Navy Pilot, page 89

Verb

gouge (third-person singular simple present gouges, present participle gouging, simple past and past participle gouged)

  1. (transitive) To make a groove, hole, or mark in by scooping with or as if with a gouge.
    • Japanese and Chinese printers used to gouge characters in wood.
    • Imperfect examples of concave shells are to be seen in the salient of El Capitan, which is itself an imperfect dome, not wholly massive throughout, that has been vigorously gouged by the Yosemite Glacier.1950, François É[mile] Matthes, “The Domes”, in Fritiof Fryxell, editor, The Incomparable Valley: A Geologic Interpretation of the Yosemite, Berkeley; Los Angeles, Calif.; London: University of...
    Synonyms:
    engrave, grave, incise
  2. (transitive) To cheat or impose upon; in particular, to charge an unfairly or unreasonably high price.
    • The company has no competition, so it tends to gouge its customers.
    • [M]any hospitals have essentially abandoned any serious effort to raise funds from donors. They could, like universities, conduct fund-raising campaigns and establish endowments to cover the shortfall caused by widespread fraud (i.e., the false promise by government and insurance to pay patients'...2008 November, William G. White, “The Physician’s Fee: A Historical Reflection”, in Eugene F. Diamond, editor, The Linacre Quarterly: Journal of the Catholic Medical Association, volume 75, number 4...
    Synonyms:
    defraud, swindle
  3. (intransitive, transitive) To dig or scoop (something) out with or as if with a gouge; in particular, to use a thumb to push or try to push the eye (of a person) out of its socket.
    • The recorded cases in which the constituents of the joint were removed at different times, and those also in which the bones or portions of the bones were gouged away, do not by any means afford satisfactory results.1863 February 7, Henry Hancock, “On the Superiority of [François] Chopart’s Operation and Excision of the Ankle in All Cases Admitting of Their Performance”, in James G. Wakley, editor, The Lancet: A...
    • In milling, a blade with this irregularity in front slope causes the cutter to drag on one side and gouge on the other.1909 January 15, Wilfred Lewis, W[illia]m H. Taylor, “The Development of a High-speed Milling Cutter, with Inserted Blades, for High-powered Milling Machines”, in Herbert Page, Armistead Cay...
  4. (intransitive) To use a gouge.
    • Blocks are alſo pieces of wood belonging to ſhips, in which the ſhivers, or ſheaves, of pullies are placed, and wherein the running ropes go. [...] The blocks are then jambed up edgeways with wedges in a clave, and the ſheave-holes are made in this manner: the length and breadth are firſt gouged...1819, “Blocks”, in Abraham Rees, editor, The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and Literature. [...] In Thirty-nine Volumes, volume IV, London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees...

Proper noun capitalized: Gouge

Gouge (plural Gouges)

  1. A surname.

gouge meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

gouge in Hindi

chisel with a curved blade
रुखानी rukhānī

gouge in Tamil

நகவுளி, தச்சு வேலையிலும், பிதுக்கு, வெளிக்கொண்டு வா

gouge in Urdu

کھرچ کر نکالنا

gouge in Bengali

খোদাই করা, গর্ত করা, অতিরিক্ত দাম হাঁকানো
More languagesFewer languages
gouge in Malayalam
ചൂർന്നെടുക്കുക, മീണ്ടുക, ചൂന്നെടുക്കുക, പെരുവിരൽകൊണ്ടു കുത്തിയെടുക്കുക
gouge in Kannada
ತೋಡು, ತೂತುಮಾಡು
gouge in Persian
جبر
gouge in Thai
ควัก kwák, แซะ sɛ́

Examples of gouge in a sentence

  • Now hollow out the inside of the boat with a gouge or gouges. ("Firmer" gouges, ground on the outside of the curve, are used.1922 August, H. Hambley Tregoning, “A Model 18-Footer Yacht, and How to Build and Sail Her”, in The Boy’s Own Paper, volume XLV, part 10...
  • The six most common woodturning tools you should know about are: gouge, skew, parting tool, spear-point, round-nose, and flat-nose.1985 April, Rosario Capotosto, “Become a Woodturning Expert: Part One”, in John A. Linkletter, editor, Popular Mechanics, volume 162...
  • The geologic relations seen at the surface continue underground, but in addition 5 to 10 feet of gouge, dipping 68°E, is found to separate the serpentine from the ore zone.1930, Edward Wilber Berry, “Systematic Descriptions”, in Revision of the Lower Eocene Wilcox Flora of the Southeastern States: With...
  • Gouges [...] are made of steel that is curved to varying degrees to "gouge" out excess wood.1977 January, Penelope Angell, “Handmade with Care: Woodcarving”, in John A. Linkletter, editor, Popular Mechanics, volume 147, number 1...

All 30 example sentences with gouge

Synonyms of gouge

All synonyms of gouge

Forms of gouge

Noun
pluralgouges
Verb
third-person singular presentgouges
present participlegouging
past participlegouged
pastgouged
Proper noun
pluralGouges

Past tense of gouge: gouged

Plural of gouge: gouges

Origin of gouge

From Middle English gouge (“chisel with concave blade; gouge”), from Old French gouge, goi (“gouge”), from Late Latin goia, gubia, gulbia (“chisel; piercer”), borrowed from Gaulish *gulbiā, from Proto-Celtic *gulbā, *gulbi, *gulbīnos (“beak, bill”). The English word is cognate with Italian gorbia, gubbia (“ferrule”), Old Breton golb, Old Irish gulba (“beak”), Portuguese goiva, Scottish Gaelic gilb (“chisel”), Spanish gubia (“chisel, gouge”), Welsh gylf (“beak; pointed instrument”), gylyf (“sickle”). The verb is derived from the noun.

Words formed from gouge

Phrases with gouge

Questions about gouge

What does gouge mean?
Gouge means a chisel with a curved blade for cutting or scooping channels, grooves, or holes in wood, stone, etc.
What is gouge in Hindi?
Gouge in Hindi is रुखानी (rukhānī). See Gouge meaning in Hindi.
How do you use gouge in a sentence?
Now hollow out the inside of the boat with a gouge or gouges. ("Firmer" gouges, ground on the outside of the curve, are used.
What part of speech is gouge?
Gouge can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce gouge?
Gouge is pronounced /ˈɡaʊ̯d͡ʒ/ (UK).
What is the plural of gouge?
The plural of gouge is gouges.

Words near gouge in the dictionary

  1. gouernements
  2. gouernment
  3. gouernments
  4. gouernour
  5. gouernours
  6. gouge
  7. gouge bit
  8. gouge bits
  9. gouge out
  10. gouged
  11. gouged out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gouge (page history and authors); Gouge (page history and authors); gouge (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gouge (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Gouge (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gouge (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); gouge (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.

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