goose
/ɡus/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.84 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
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.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A tailor's iron, heated in live coals or embers, used to press fabrics.
Archaic; Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "There is a flock of geese on the pond."
- "The goose, reputed to possess high generative power, was sacred to Priapus."
- "A group of geese is called a gaggle."
- "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 three geese at the New Year. It is difficult sometimes to distinguish ganders from geese. A practical man is, however, rarely mistaken."
- "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 chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped."
- "I'm sorry for you, but you're such a goose."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɡus/
- British English: /ɡuːs/