/ɡaʊd͡ʒ/
OriginFrom Middle English gouge (“chisel with concave blade; gouge”), from Old French gouge, goi (“gouge”), from Late Latin goia, gubia, gulbia (“chisel; piercer”), borrowed from Gaulish *gulbiā, from Proto-Celtic *gulbā, *gulbi, *gulbīnos (“beak, bill”). The English word is cognate with Italian gorbia, gubbia (“ferrule”), Old Breton golb, Old Irish gulba (“beak”), Portuguese goiva, Scottish Gaelic gilb (“chisel”), Spanish gubia (“chisel, gouge”), Welsh gylf (“beak; pointed instrument”), gylyf (“sickle”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
- countable, uncountableA chisel with a curved blade for cutting or scooping channels, grooves, or holes in wood, stone, etc.
“The "steeple" was a little cupola, reared on the very centre of the roof, on four tall pillars of pine, that were fluted with a gouge, and loaded with mouldings.”
“The cutting [of letter blocks] is effected by chisels and gouges of the usual kinds, and is the work of a class of artizans called 'Wood letter Cutters,' or 'Wood-type Cutters.'”
“Now hollow out the inside of the boat with a gouge or gouges. ("Firmer" gouges, ground on the outside of the curve, are used. "Paring" gouges are useless.)”
- countable, uncountableA bookbinder's tool with a curved face, used for blind tooling or gilding.
“In plate II. are design for two backs of books. The first figure, which presents an appearance of exceeding richness, is executed with one sole tool, viz. No. 10, and a small gouge for the sides of th”
- countable, uncountableAn incising tool that cuts blanks or forms for envelopes, gloves, etc., from leather, paper, or other materials.
“Gouge. […] A shaped incising-tool used for cutting out forms or blanks for gloves, envelopes, or other objects cut to a shape from fabric, leather, or paper.”
- countable, uncountableA cut or groove, as left by a gouge or something sharp.
“The nail left a deep gouge in the tire.”
“The planing-machine, on the contrary, uses revolving knives, which make a succession of little gouges in the wood; these gouges, which would otherwise leave the surface very irregular, are made to lea”
“He makes himself look at his daughter's changing body the way he might look at a gouge on his own leg, forcing himself to examine every detail until he's not looking at a horror but a fact; something ”
- colloquial, countable, uncountableAn act of gouging.
- countable, slang, uncountableA cheat, a fraud; an imposition.
- countable, slang, uncountableAn impostor.
- countable, uncountableSoft material lying between the wall of a vein and the solid vein of ore.
“At some of the mines on the great Mother Lode, where hundreds of tons are not unfrequently thrown down at a blast, and where a wide, soft "gouge" along one wall enables the minder to keep two or three”
“The geologic relations seen at the surface continue underground, but in addition 5 to 10 feet of gouge, dipping 68°E, is found to separate the serpentine from the ore zone. The gouge is not sufficient”
- US, slang, uncountableInformation.
“As all naval aviators have learned at one time or another in their careers, “There's plenty of bad gouge out there," and it has, does, and will get the unwary fliers in trouble.”
“The Marines and “Coasties” (the nickname for Coast Guard students) were reputed to have good gouge on each class's test. Rumor had it that the Marines had inside information on the questions for the n”
- transitiveTo make a groove, hole, or mark in by scooping with or as if with a gouge.
“Japanese and Chinese printers used to gouge characters in wood.”
“Imperfect examples of concave shells are to be seen in the salient of El Capitan, which is itself an imperfect dome, not wholly massive throughout, that has been vigorously gouged by the Yosemite Glac”
“Gouges [...] are made of steel that is curved to varying degrees to "gouge" out excess wood.”
- transitiveTo cheat or impose upon; in particular, to charge an unfairly or unreasonably high price.
“The company has no competition, so it tends to gouge its customers.”
“[M]any hospitals have essentially abandoned any serious effort to raise funds from donors. They could, like universities, conduct fund-raising campaigns and establish endowments to cover the shortfall”
“Women like Rachel sail through life wrapping men around their little fingers and gouging them for everything they've got.”
- intransitive, transitiveTo dig or scoop (something) out with or as if with a gouge; in particular, to use a thumb to push or try to push the eye (of a person) out of its socket.
“The recorded cases in which the constituents of the joint were removed at different times, and those also in which the bones or portions of the bones were gouged away, do not by any means afford satis”
“In milling, a blade with this irregularity in front slope causes the cutter to drag on one side and gouge on the other.”
“He tried to clinch and gouge, but another right hook to the jaw sent him down and out.”
- intransitiveTo use a gouge.
“Blocks are alſo pieces of wood belonging to ſhips, in which the ſhivers, or ſheaves, of pullies are placed, and wherein the running ropes go. [...] The blocks are then jambed up edgeways with wedges i”
Formsgouges(plural) · gouges(present, singular, third-person) · gouging(participle, present) · gouged(participle, past) · gouged(past) · Gouges(plural)