subs. (common).—1. A tailor’s smoothing iron. (Whose handle is shaped like the neck of the bird.) Hence the old ditton, ‘A taylor be he ever so poor is sure to have a goose at his fire.—GROSE. Fr., un gendarme.
1606. SHAKESPEARE, Macbeth, ii. 3. Come in, taylor; here you may roast your GOOSE.
1606. DEKKER, Newes from Hell, in Works (GROSART), ii., 114. Every man being armed with his sheeres and pressing Iron, which he calls there his GOOSE.
1638. RANDOLPH, Hey for Honesty, v. 1. Tailor. … O iron age! that, like the ostrich, makes me feed on my own GOOSE.
1703. WARD, The London Spy, pt. xii., p. 276. He grew as hot as a Botcher’s GOOSE.
1748. T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.). GOOSE (s.) … also the large, heavy iron used by taylors, to press down their seams with when heated very hot.
1766. KENRICK, Falstaff’s Wedding, iii., 1. Although they had been hissing all the way like a tailor’s GOOSE.
1861. G. A. SALA, Twice Round the Clock, Noon, Par. 12. An Irish tailor who has had a slight dispute with his wife the night before, and has corporeally chastised her with a hot GOOSE—a tailor’s GOOSE, be it understood—to the extent of all but fracturing her skull.
1877. W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ii. 89. On the return of the warders from their own breakfast, the tools—scissors, sleeve-boards, irons, or ‘GEESE,’ are served out.
2. (common).—A simpleton: usually only of women. Also GOOSECAP (q.v.).
1595. SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4. Mercutio. Was I there with you for the GOOSE? Rom. Thou wast never with me that thou wast not for the GOOSE.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v.
3. (venery).—See WINCHESTER GOOSE.
4. (colloquial).—A reprimand; a WIGGING (q.v.); cf., verb, sense 1.
1865. G. F. BERKELEY, My Life and Recollections, i., 276. On the adventure reaching the ears of the Duke of Wellington, the active experimentalist received considerable ‘GOOSE.’
5. (printers’).—See WAYZ GOOSE.
6. (colloquial).—A woman: whence, by implication, the sexual favour.
Verb. (common).—1. To hiss; to condemn by hissing. Also TO GET THE GOOSE or THE BIG BIRD (q.v.). Among Fr. equivalents are: appeler or siffler Azor (= to whistle a dog, Azor being a common canine appellation); boire une goutte (= to be goosed); attrapper; reconduire; se faire travailler; empoigner; éreinter; polisonner; égayer.
1854. DICKENS, Hard Times, ch. vi. He was GOOSED last night, he was GOOSED the night before last, he was GOOSED to-day. Ibid. (1858), Christmas Stories (Going into Society), p. 67 (Household ed.). Which makes you grind your teeth at him to his face, and which can hardly hold you from GOOSING him audible when he’s going through his War-Dance.
1873. Hornet, 29 Jan., p. 211, c. 2. Ferdin. Fact! My soul is sick on’t. GOOSED last night; My salary docked.
1875. T. FROST, Circus Life and Circus Celebrities, p. 281. An artiste is ‘GOOSED,’ or ‘GETS THE GOOSE,’ when the spectators or auditors testify by sibillant sounds disapproval or dissatisfaction.
1886. Graphic, 10 April, p. 399. To be GOOSED, or, as it is sometimes phrased, ‘to get the big bird,’ is occasionally a compliment to the actor’s power of representing villainy, but more often is disagreeably suggestive of a failure to please.
2. (colloquial).—To ruin; to spoil. See COOK ONE’S GOOSE.
1888. Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 22 Dec., p. 301. We was pretty nigh GOOSED.
3. (cobblers’).—To mend boots by putting on a new front half-way up, and a new bottom; elsewhere called FOOTING boots. Cf., FOX.
4. (venery).—To go wenching; to WOMANIZE (q.v.).
5. (venery).—To possess a woman.
GOOSE WITHOUT GRAVY, subs. phr. (nautical).—A severe but bloodless blow. See WIPE.
TO BE SOUND ON THE GOOSE. verb. phr. (American).—Before the Civil War, to be sound on the pro-slavery question: now, to be generally staunch on party matters; to be politically orthodox.
1857. Providence Journal, 18 June.
| To seek for political flaws is no use, | |
| His opponents will find he is SOUND ON THE GOOSE. |
1857. T. H. GLADSTONE, Kansas: or Squatter Life, p. 43. One of the boys, I reckon? ALL RIGHT ON THE GOOSE, eh? No highfaluten airs here, you know.
1862. J. R. LOWELL, The Biglow Papers, II.
| ‘Nothun religion works wal North, but it’s ez soft ez spruce, | |
| Compared to ourn, for keepin’ SOUND,’ sez she, ‘UPON THE GOOSE.’ |
1875. American English, in Chambers’s Journal, 25 Sept., p. 610. A man who can be depended upon by his party is said to be SOUND ON THE GOOSE.
1892. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, p. 22. He didn’t appear quite so SOUND ON THE GOOSE as he ought to ha’ done.
TO FIND FAULT WITH A FAT GOOSE, verb. phr. (old).—To grumble without rhyme or reason.—B. E. (1690).
TO KILL THE GOOSE FOR THE GOLDEN EGGS, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To grasp at more than is due; to over-reach oneself. (From the Greek fable.)
EVERYTHING IS LOVELY AND THE GOOSE HANGS HIGH, phr.—See EVERYTHING.
HE’LL BE A MAN AMONG THE GEESE WHEN THE GANDER IS GONE, phr. (old).—Ironical; = ‘He’ll be a man before his mother.’
GO! SHOE THE GOOSE, phr. (old).—A retort, derisive or incredulous—the modern ‘To hell and pump thunder.’
UNABLE TO SAY BOH! TO A GOOSE, phr. (colloquial).—Said of a bashful person.—GROSE.
1892. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, p. 76. And now … he can hardly say BOH TO A GOOSE.
See also WILD-GOOSE CHASE.
