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. 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. Lowell, Biglow Papers, II. Northern religion works wal North,
but it’s ez suft ez spruce, compar’d to our’n for keepin’ sound,
sez she, upon the goose.
1875. American English in Chamb. 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.
Goose-and-Duck, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A fuck.
Goose and Gridiron, subs. phr. (political American).—The American
eagle, and the United States flag. See Gridiron.
1891. Standard, 3 Jan., p. 3, c. 1. This is curious, considering
the almost fetish-like veneration entertained by the modern
American for his Standard, which, coupled with the national bird,
tempted the Loyalists in the early days of the war to vent endless
rude witticisms on the goose and gridiron.
Gooseberry, subs. (common).—1. A fool. For synonyms, see Buffle and
Cabbage-head. [Perhaps from Gooseberry Fool; as in Goldsmith’s
Retaliation:—‘And by the same rule Magnanimous Goldsmith’s a gooseberry
fool.’]
2. (common).—A chaperon; one who takes third place to save appearances
or play propriety (q.v.); a daisy- or gooseberry-picker.
3. (common).—A marvellous tale; a munchausen (q.v.); a flim-flam. Also
gigantic, and giant goosberry. Hence Gooseberry season = the dull time
of journalism, when the appearance of monstrous vegetables, sea
serpents, showers of frogs, and other portents is chronicled in default
of news. Cf., silly season (q.v.).
1870. Figaro, 22 June. If we have no big gooseberries this season,
we have at least a big salmon.
1871. Graphic, 22 Apr. Mr. Tupper excited a great deal of
incredulity a few years ago by announcing in the prodigious
goosberry season that he had discovered an ancient Roman coin
embedded in the heart of an oak tree.
1885. Ill. London News, 18 July, p. 50, c. 2. Amongst journalists
there is popularly known what they call ‘the giant gooseberry
season,’ the meaning of which is, that when Parliament has risen
and the Law Courts are shut and subjects on which to write become
scarce, adventurous spirits are apt to discourse in their
newspapers of fruit of abnormal size, and other natural prodigies,
which, according to current banter, exist only in their own
imagination.