Word.ws English Dictionary

plays gooseberry

plays gooseberry is the third-person singular simple present indicative of play gooseberry.

Meaning of play gooseberry

Verb

play gooseberry (third-person singular simple present plays gooseberry, present participle playing gooseberry, simple past and past participle played gooseberry)

  1. (UK, dated, slang) To be an unwanted third party accompanying two lovers, to serve as a chaperon.
    • "Well, new experiences are broadening. Come along, and you'll be able to sympathize with all poor souls who have to play gooseberry often.1915, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “In the Park”, in Anne of the Island
    Synonyms:
    do gooseberry

Questions about plays gooseberry

What is plays gooseberry the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Plays gooseberry is the third-person singular simple present indicative of play gooseberry.

Words near plays gooseberry in the dictionary

  1. plays for love
  2. plays for time
  3. plays full
  4. plays games
  5. plays God
  6. plays gooseberry
  7. plays hardball
  8. plays havoc
  9. plays hell with
  10. plays hob with
  11. plays hooky

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plays gooseberry (page history and authors); play 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.

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