gouging

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.

   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.

   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...
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...

See all 14 meanings of gouge