▪ I. gowk, n. Orig. Sc. and north. dial.
(gaʊk)
4–6 gok(e, 5–6 gowke, golk, (6 Sc. goilk), 6–8 gouke, 6–9 gouk, 7– gowk.
[a. ON. gaukr = OE. ᵹéac (see yeke), OHG. gouh (MHG. gouch, G. gauch):—OTeut. *gauko-z.]
1. The cuckoo.
| c 1325 Song 5 in Rel. Ant. I. 291, I ga gowlende a-bowte, al so so dos a goke [rime-word bok]. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 927 Thare galede þe gowke one greuez fulle lowde. c 1450 Holland Howlat lxiv, The Tuchet and the gukkit Golk. 1483 Cath. Angl. 161/2 A Goke (A. A Goke, A Gotoo), cuculus. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxxiii. 77 The golk, the gormaw, and the gled, Beft him with buffettis quhill he bled. 1544 Turner Avium Præcip. Hist. D 3 b, De cvcvlo..Anglicé a cukkouu, & a gouke. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 274/2 The Cuckow is in some parts of England called a Gouke. 1786 Burns Let. to R. Muir 20 Mar., I hope, some time before we hear the gowk, to have the pleasure of seeing you at Kilmarnock. 1841 Selby in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club I. No. 9. 253 The numbers of the cuckoo or gowk (Cuculus canorus) which visit us. 1882 Lanc. Gloss., Gowk, the cuckoo. |
2. A fool: a half-witted person. [So G.
gauch.]
| a 1605 Polwart Flyting w. Montgomerie 23 Gowke, wyt mee not to gar thee greit; Thy tratling, truiker, I sall tame. a 1605 Montgomerie Sonn. lxx. 9 Art thou a god? No—bot a gok disguysit. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Sheph. v. i, What ails thee, gowk! to mak sae loud ado? 1777 Brand Pop. Antiq. (1849) I. 139 April Gouks. 1795 Burns Heron Ballads iv, A lord may be a gouk, Wi' ribbon, star, and a' that. a 1810 Tannahill Poems (1846) 21 The gowk's possest I ween. 1858 R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma xliv. 196 A gowk of an Englishman, who gained an audience under a mistaken notion. 1893 ‘Q.’ [Couch] Delect. Duchy 154 You gowk! |
3. Phrases.
to give the gowk to: to befool.
to hunt the gowk: to go on a fool's errand.
| 1728 Ramsay Mercury in Quest of Peace 81 Has Jove then sent me amang thir fowk, Cry'd Hermes, here to hunt the gowk? ? a 1800 Sweet Willie xxi. in Finlay Sc. Ball. (1808) II. 66 Ye hae gien me the gowk, Annet, But I'll gie you the scorn. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. esp. with
gen. gowk's, as
gowk's-errand = fool's-errand (see
errand 2 c);
gowk('s)-meat,
gowk-oats (see
quots.);
gowk's-spittle = cuckoo-spit2;
gowk's-storm,
† (
a) a storm of short duration; (
b) a spring gale which occurs at the time of the cuckoo's arrival. Also
gowk-like a., foolish.
| 1823 Corbett Petticoat Tales I. 227 ‘Somebody’, continued Robin, ‘sent them on a *gowk's errand, to look for smuggled whiskey in my house’. |
| 1823 Lockhart Reg. Dalton I. 234 Though Archy Keith might have done a very *gowk-like thing when he joined their cloth [etc.]. |
| 1778 Lightfoot Flora Scot. (1792) 238 Wood Sorrel, Anglis. *Gouke-meat, Scotis. 1879 Britten & Holland Plant-n. 217 Gowk (or Gowks) Meat. 1. Orchis mascula and O. Morio. 2. Oxalis Acetosella. |
| 1893 Northumbld. Gloss., *Gowk-oats, late sown oats. The season for sowing oats is usually during the month of March. When by chance the sowing is delayed till April they are gowk-oats. |
| 1824 Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl., *Gowk-spittles, a white frothy matter common on the leaves of plants, about the latter end of the summer and beginning of autumn. 1847 J. Wilson Chr. North (1857) I. 138 The slaver of gowk's-spittle. |
| 1594 Huntly Let. to Earl Angus in Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) IV. 225 [Huntly spoke of the king's rumoured campaign as likely to turn out a] ‘*gowk's storm’. a 1691 Sir S. Mackenzie Mem. (1721) 70 That being done he hop'd that this was but a gowk storm. 1849 W. Thompson Nat. Hist. Birds Irel. I. 357 The peasantry look forward with the greatest interest every spring for what they call the ‘Gowk (cuckoo) Storm’, that takes place about the end of April or the beginning of May, when the note of this bird is heard. 1899 H. C. Hart in Trans. Phil. Soc. 11 The portion shed from the plant and driven ashore by May storms, usually by that storm known as the ‘cuckoo storm’ or ‘gowk storm’. |
▪ II. gowk, v. rare.
(
gaʊk)
Also 6
gouk.
[? f. prec.; but goukis in the first quot. may be a spelling of guckis: see guck v.] intr. To stare foolishly.
| 1513 Douglas Aeneis viii. Prol. 94 Sum goukis quhill the glas pyg grow full of gold ȝit. 1873 R. Broughton Nancy II. 154 Bobby, Tou-Tou and I, having no one to..gowk amorously up at us, are sitting in a row in our pew. |