green goose
[See green a.; the use of the word in opposition to stubble-goose suggests green n.]
1. A young goose, a gosling. ? Now dial.
The precise application of the term with respect to age and condition varies with the locality (see quots.).
| 1564 in Gross Gild Merch. (1890) II. 279 The furste course: frometye, rost byffe, grene gese, weale. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. i. i. 97 The Spring is neare when greene geesse are a breeding. 1589 Cogan Haven Health (1636) 156 The greene goose is better than the stubble goose. 1620 Venner Via Recta iii. 66 Young Geese, which are commonly called greene-Geese. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece iii. 509 Stubble Geese or Green Geese should be kept in the Dark, and fatted with ground Malt mixed with Milk. 1821 J. Hodgson in J. Raine Mem. (1857) I. 342 We dined with my aunt, and had a green goose, four months old, to dinner. 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Green goose, a goose killed at midsummer time. A goose under four months old. 1881 Oxfordsh. Gloss. Suppl., Green geese, unfatted geese. They should be eaten on Old Michaelmas Day. |
2. A simpleton; = goose n. 1 f. rare.
| 1768 Gray Let. 25 Feb., Wks. 1836 IV. 113 The true title of this part of his work [Boswell's Corsica] is, a Dialogue between a Green-goose and a Hero. 1877 Dowden Shaks. Prim. vi. 130 Here Troilus, the noble green-goose, goes through his youthful agony of ascertaining the unworthiness of her to whom he had given his faith and hope. |