goose : Idioms & Phrases

• an attempt to accomplish something impossible or unlikely of attainment.

Webster 1913

• noun European goose smaller than the brant; breeds in the far north
  barnacle; Branta leucopsis.
  

WordNet

• (Zoöl.), a species of goose (Anser segetum).

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), a goose (Branta leucopsis), of Arctic Europe and America. It was formerly believed that it hatched from the cirripeds of the sea (Lepas), which were, therefore, called barnacles, goose barnacles, or Anatifers. The name is also applied to other related species. See Anatifa and Cirripedia.

Webster 1913

• noun North American wild goose having dark plumage in summer but white in winter
  Chen caerulescens.
  

WordNet

Brand" goose`

Etymology

Prob. fr. 1st brand + goose: cf. Sw. brandgås. Cf. Brant.

Definitions

1. (Zoöl.) A species of wild goose (Branta bernicla) usually called in America brant. See Brant.

Webster 1913

• noun small dark geese that breed in the north and migrate southward
  brant goose; brant; brent.
  

WordNet

• noun small dark geese that breed in the north and migrate southward
  brant goose; brant; brent.
  

WordNet

• noun common greyish-brown wild goose of North America with a loud, trumpeting call
  Branta canadensis; honker; Canada goose.
  

WordNet

• . (Zoöl.) See Whisky Jack.

Webster 1913

• noun common greyish-brown wild goose of North America with a loud, trumpeting call
  Branta canadensis; honker; Canada goose.
  

WordNet

• . (Zoöl.) See Gannet.

Webster 1913

• noun very large wild goose of northeast Asia; interbreeds freely with the greylag
  Anser cygnoides.
  

WordNet

• noun the best known variety of brant goose
  Branta bernicla.
  

WordNet

• (Zoöl.) the eider duck.

Webster 1913

Em"ber-goose` noun

Etymology

Cf. Norw. emberaas, hav-imber, hav-immer, Icel. himbrin, himbrimi.

Definitions

1. (Zoöl.) The loon or great northern diver. See Loon. Written also emmer-goose and imber-goose.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), a large and handsome goose (Philacte canagica), found in Alaska.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), the graylag goose of Europe. Prov. Eng.

Webster 1913

• . (a) A boy's game, in which one boy tries to catch others as they run one goal to another. (b) A game with sixteen checkers, or some substitute for them, one of which is called the fox, and the rest the geese; the fox, whose first position is in the middle of the board, endeavors to break through the line of the geese, and the geese to pen up the fox.

Webster 1913

• noun stalked barnacle that attaches to ship bottoms or floating timbers
  Lepas fascicularis; gooseneck barnacle.
  

WordNet

• (Zoöl.), any pedunculated barnacle of the genus Anatifa or Lepas; called also duck barnacle. See Barnacle, and Cirripedia.

Webster 1913

• noun reflex erection of hairs of the skin in response to cold or emotional stress or skin irritation
  horripilation; goose bump; gooseflesh; goose pimple; goosebump; pilomotor reflex.
  

WordNet

• a silly person. Obs. Beau. & .

Webster 1913

• (Bot.), a coarse kind of rush (Juncus squarrosus).

Webster 1913

• noun down of the goose
  

WordNet

• noun a quantity of no importance
  cypher; aught; zip; nil; nada; zero; nix; cipher; zilch; zippo; nothing; naught; null.
  
  • it looked like nothing I had ever seen before
  • reduced to nil all the work we had done
  • we racked up a pathetic goose egg
  • it was all for naught
  • I didn't hear zilch about it

WordNet

• Michaelmas. Colloq. Eng.

Webster 1913

• a peculiar roughness of the skin produced by cold or fear; called also goose skin. and goose pimples and goose bumps

Webster 1913

• noun annual having the stem beset with curved prickles; North America and Europe and Asia
  cleavers; spring cleavers; clivers; catchweed; Galium aparine.
  
• noun low-growing perennial having leaves silvery beneath; northern United States; Europe; Asia
  goose grass; silverweed; Potentilla anserina.
  
• noun annual weedy grass used for hay
  Texas millet; Panicum Texanum.
  
• noun coarse annual grass having fingerlike spikes of flowers; native to Old World tropics; a naturalized weed elsewhere
  Eleusine indica; yard grass; wire grass; yardgrass.
  

WordNet

• . (Bot.) (a) A plant of the genus Galium (G. Aparine), a favorite food of geese; called also catchweed and cleavers. (b) A species of knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare). (c) The annual spear grass (Poa annua).

Webster 1913

• noun grease derived from geese
  

WordNet

• noun liver of a goose used as meat
  

WordNet

• anything, as a rod of iron or a pipe, curved like the neck of a goose; specially (Naut.), an iron hook connecting a spar with a mast.

Webster 1913

• noun reflex erection of hairs of the skin in response to cold or emotional stress or skin irritation
  horripilation; goose bump; gooseflesh; goose pimple; goosebump; pilomotor reflex.
  

WordNet

• noun wild plum trees of eastern and central North America having red-orange fruit with yellow flesh
  Prunus americana; American red plum; August plum.
  

WordNet

• a large feather or quill of a goose; also, a pen made from it.

Webster 1913

• noun reflex erection of hairs of the skin in response to cold or emotional stress or skin irritation
  horripilation; goose bump; gooseflesh; goose pimple; goosebump; pilomotor reflex.
  

WordNet

• . See Goose flesh, above.

Webster 1913

• noun a manner of marching with legs straight and swinging high
  
• verb march in a military fashion
  

WordNet

• (Bot.), a composite plant (Achillea ptarmica), growing wild in the British islands.

Webster 1913

• noun low-growing perennial having leaves silvery beneath; northern United States; Europe; Asia
  goose grass; silverweed; Potentilla anserina.
  

WordNet

• noun common grey wild goose of Europe; ancestor of many domestic breeds
  graylag; greylag; Anser anser; graylag goose.
  

WordNet

• noun common grey wild goose of Europe; ancestor of many domestic breeds
  graylag; greylag; Anser anser; graylag goose.
  

WordNet

Im"ber-goose` noun

Definitions

1. (Zoöl.) The loon. See Ember-goose.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), the European white-fronted goose.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), the giant fulmar of the Pacific. See Fulmar.

Webster 1913

• noun the imaginary author of a collection of nursery rhymes
  

WordNet

• (Zoöl.), the Egyptian goose. See Note under Goose, 2.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), any species of very small geese of the genus Nettapus, native of Africa, India, and Australia.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), the red-throated diver, or loon. Prov. Eng.

Webster 1913

• . (Zoöl.) See Phalarope.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), the common sheldrake; so named from its craftiness.

Webster 1913

• noun blue goose in the white color phase
  

WordNet

• (Zoöl.), any one of several species of arctic geese of the genus Chen. The common snow goose (Chen hyperborea), common in the Western United States in winter, is white, with the tips of the wings black and legs and bill red. Called also white brant, wavey, and Texas goose. The blue, or blue-winged, snow goose (C. coerulescens) is varied with grayish brown and bluish gray, with the wing quills black and the head and upper part of the neck white. Called also white head, white-headed goose, and bald brant.

Webster 1913

• noun very large white gannet with black wing tips
  solan goose; Sula bassana; solan.
  

WordNet

• . (Zoöl.) See Gannet.

Webster 1913

• noun very large white gannet with black wing tips
  solan goose; Sula bassana; solan.
  

WordNet

• (Zoöl.), the gannet.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), any one of several species of long-legged African geese of the genus Plectropterus and allied genera, having a strong spur on the bend of the wing, as the Gambo goose (P. Gambensis) and the Egyptian, or Nile, goose (Alopochen Ægyptiaca).

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), the graylag goose. Prov. Eng. Chaucer.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), a bird of India (Cygnopsis cygnoides) resembling both the swan and the goose.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), the bernicle goose.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), the brant; so called because it feeds on ware, or seaweed. Prov. Eng.

Webster 1913

Way"-goose` noun

Definitions

1. See Wayz-goose, n., 2. Eng.

Webster 1913

Wayz"-goose` noun

Etymology

Wase stubble + goose.

Definitions

1. A stubble goose. Obs. or Prov. Eng.
2. An annual feast of the persons employed in a printing office. Written also way-goose. Eng.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), the white brant, or snow goose. See Snow goose, under Snow.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), any one of several species of undomesticated geese, especially the Canada goose (Branta Canadensis), the European bean goose, and the graylag. See Graylag, and Bean goose, under Bean.

Webster 1913

• the pursuit of something unattainable, or of something as unlikely to be caught as the wild goose. Shak.

Webster 1913

• noun the fruitless pursuit of something unattainable
  

WordNet