play Old Gooseberry
play Old Gooseberry verb: to suddenly put a stop to a disturbance by force or threats.
Verb
play Old Gooseberry (third-person singular simple present plays Old Gooseberry, present participle playing Old Gooseberry, simple past and past participle played Old Gooseberry)
- To suddenly put a stop to a disturbance by force or threats.
- To play the devil; to make mischief.
- I'll play old Gooseberry with the office, and make you glad to buy me out at a good high figure, if you try any of your tricks with me.1843–44, Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit
- Synonyms:
- play Old Harry
Synonyms of play Old Gooseberry
Forms of play Old Gooseberry
| third-person singular present | plays Old Gooseberry |
|---|---|
| present participle | playing Old Gooseberry |
| past participle | played Old Gooseberry |
| past | played Old Gooseberry |
| alternative form | play up Old Gooseberry |
Questions about play Old Gooseberry
- What does play Old Gooseberry mean?
- Play Old Gooseberry means to suddenly put a stop to a disturbance by force or threats.
- What part of speech is play Old Gooseberry?
- Play Old Gooseberry is a verb.
- What is the past tense of play Old Gooseberry?
- The past tense of play Old Gooseberry is played Old Gooseberry.
Words near play Old Gooseberry in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: play Old Gooseberry (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: En-au-play Old Gooseberry.ogg.
Cite this entry: “play Old Gooseberry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/play_old_gooseberry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.