To play (or do) gooseberry, verb. phr. (common).—To play propriety;
also to sit third in a hansom.
1877. Hawley Smart, Play or Pay. ch. vi. To take care of a pretty
girl, ... with a sister to do gooseberry.
1880. G. R. Sims, Jeph, p. 8. Mamma always played gooseberry on
these occasions.
1883. Globe, 6 July, p. 1, c. 5. They will be compelled in
self-defence to have a shorthand writer present to play gooseberry,
and to be able to furnish proof that their discourse was innocent.
1892. J. McCarthy and Mrs. Campbell-Praed, Ladies’ Gallery, p. 51.
Well, I am not a good hand at playing gooseberry, and I don’t like
spoiling sport.
To play old gooseberry, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To play the deuce; to
upset or spoil; to throw everything into confusion; but see quot. 1811.
Old Gooseberry = The devil (see Skipper). [See Notes and Queries, 2 S
x., 307, 376; xii., 336.]
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Gooseberry. He played up old
gooseberry among them; said of a person who, by force or threats,
suddenly puts an end to a riot or disturbance.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 22. Will play up old gooseberry soon with
them all.
1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf. To play up gooseberry; children
romping about the house or the parent rating them over.
1837. Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Bloudie Jacke of Shrewsberrie.’ There’s a
pretty to-do! All the people of Shrewsbury playing old gooseberry
With your choice bits of taste and virtù.
1865. H. Kingsley, Hillyars and the Burtons, ch. lxii. Lay on like
old gooseberry.
1892. Globe, 12 July, p. 2, c. 2. We all know his capacity for
playing old goosberry with things in general.
Gooseberry-eyed, adj. (old).—Grey-eyed. (Lex. Bal., 1811).
Gooseberry-grinder, subs. (old).—The breech. For synonyms, see
Monocular eyeglass.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. Gooseberry-grinder, s.v. Ask Bogey the
gooseberry-grinder, ask mine a——e.
Gooseberry Lay, subs. phr. (thieves’).—Stealing linen from a line.
Gooseberry-picker, subs. (colloquial).—1. A person whose labour
profits, and is credited to, another; a ghost (q.v.).