One of the reasons I started this blog was to be able to scratch my various itches in public. That includes an abiding interest in slang. So herewith the second in an ongoing series of entries, this one drawn from Robert L. Chapman's marvelous
Dictionary of American Slang (Third Edition).
GOOSE
(1) verb: By 1881: To prod someone roughly and rudely in the anal region, usually as a course and amiable joke: "As she was bending over her lab table, a playful lab assistant goosed her." -- Max Shulman
(2) noun: "He threatened a goose, and I cringed."
(3) verb: By 1930s: To exhort strongly and irritably; goad harshly. " . . . and goosed the media into hyping them." -- Washington Post.; "Every once in a while goose it with defense spending" -- Village Voice
(4) noun: "The whole bunch needed a good goose."
(5) verb: By 1940s: To run an engine at full speed or with spurts of high speed. "Vroom-vroom-vroom, he goosed the engine to full-throated life" -- Earl Thompson
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