US /ɡus/ UK /ɡuːs/
noun verb Freq #4934

Meanings

  1. 1
    noun

    A large water bird with webbed feet and a long neck, bigger than a duck.

    A flock of geese landed on the pond.

  2. 2
    noun

    The meat of a goose, eaten as food.

    They roasted a goose for the holiday dinner.

  3. 3
    noun

    A silly or foolish person.

    Don't be such a goose, of course I'm joking.

Thesaurus

Word family
Forms geesegoosedgoosesgoosing
Derived forms ember-gooseembergooseemmer-goosegooduckengoosandergoose-bumpgoose-drowndergoose-drownergoose-fleshergoose-grassgoose-ishgoose-like
Related forms anserinedoveduckducklingeiderpigeonsquabswanswanling

Etymology

PIE word *ǵʰh₂éns 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…

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