gander

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“
What's sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose. "

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A male goose.
  2. noun Informal A look or glance: "Everyone turns and takes a gander at the yokels” (Garrison Keillor).
  3. noun Informal A simpleton; a ninny.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • The gander was always nervy - I think the gander, I assume the goslings hung around mom while dad stood guard, staring and hissing at passers-by - he wasn't sure whether to chase the stray or stick with the family; he usually did the latter.
  • What's sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose, isn't it? —  Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet
  • I'm a fellow who thinks what's good for the gander is good for the goose. —  130 - The Spook of Grandpa Eben
  • Outdoor Divas prides itself on catering specifically to sporty women and the understanding that what works for the gander isn't always good for the goose. —  Westword | Complete Issue
  • (So what's good for the goose should be good for the gander, above, in terms of Microsoft's characterization of hotspot authentication weakness currently.) —  Wi-Fi Networking News
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English gandra; see ghans- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English gandre, from Anglo-Saxon gandra, also ganra (later English dial. ganner) (the d being excrescent as in andro-, thunder, etc.) (= Dutch gender), a gander, the same word, but with different suffix, as Middle High German ganzer, German ganser (now usually gänserich, after enterich = English drake q. v.); cf. Latin anser (for *hanser), masculine and feminine, = Greek χήν, masculine and feminine, = Sanskrit hansa, masculine The English feminine is goose, orig. *gans: see goose and gannet.
  2. from gander, n.: in allusion to the vague and slow gait of that bird.
 

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/ˈgændər/
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