Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A young goose.
  • noun A naive or inexperienced young person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A young goose; a goose before it has attained its full plumage.
  • noun The catkin of the willow: so called from its yellow color and fluffy texture.
  • noun The American pasque-flower, Pulsatilla hirsutissima: so called from its dense, soft hairs.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A young or unfledged goose.
  • noun A catkin on nut trees and pines.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A young goose.
  • noun A callow (immature, inexperienced) / foolish, naive, young person.
  • noun dated A catkin on nut trees and pines.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun young goose

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, variant (influenced by gos, goose) of gesling, from Old Norse gæslingr, diminutive of gās, goose; see ghans- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Middle English gosling, goselyng ("gosling"), alteration (due to Middle English goos, gose ("goose")) of earlier gesling ("gosling"), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse gæsling, géslingr ("gosling"), from gás ("goose") + -lingr ("-ling"). Cognate with Danish gæsling ("gosling"), Swedish gässling ("gosling"). Compare also Low German gossel, gössel ("gosling"), German Gänslein ("gosling"). More at goose, -ling.

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