gouge

Etymology

From Middle English gouge, from Old French gouge, from Late Latin gulbia (“piercer”), from Gaulish *gulbia (compare Scottish Gaelic gilb (“chisel”), Welsh gylyf (“sickle”)), from Proto-Celtic *gulbi (“beak”) (compare Old Irish gulba, Welsh gylf, Old Breton golb).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaʊdʒ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊd͡ʒ

Noun

gouge (plural gouges)

1. A cut or groove, as left by something sharp.

   The nail left a deep gouge in the tire.

2. A chisel, with a curved blade, for scooping or cutting holes, channels, or grooves, in wood, stone, etc.
   • 1823, James Fenimore Cooper, The Pioneers, ch. 8,

     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.

3. A bookbinder's tool with a curved face, used for blind tooling or gilding.
4. An incising tool that cuts forms or blanks for gloves, envelopes, etc.. from leather, paper, etc.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

5. (mining) Soft material lying between the wall of a vein and the solid vein.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Raymond to this entry?)

6. (slang) Imposition; cheat; fraud.
7. (slang) An impostor; a cheat.

Verb

gouge (third-person singular simple present gouges, present participle gouging, simple past and past participle gouged)

1. (transitive) To make a mark or hole by scooping.

   Japanese and Chinese printers used to gouge characters in wood.

2. (transitive or intransitive) To push, or try to push the eye (of a person) out of its socket.
   • 1930, Robert E. Howard, Champ of the Forecastle,

     He tried to clinch and gouge, but another right hook to the jaw sent him down and out.

3. (transitive) To charge an unreasonably or unfairly high price.

   They have no competition, so they tend to gouge their customers.

Related terms

• gouger

References

• “gouge” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.

Etymology

Old French gouge, from Latin gulbia (Late Latin gubia), of Gaulish or Basque origins.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡuʒ/
• Rhymes: -uʒ

Noun

gouge f (plural gouges)

1. gouge (groove)
2. gouge (tool)
3. (obsolete) female servant
4. (archaic) prostitute
   • 1857, Charles Baudelaire, Bribes - Damnation,

     On peut les comparer encore à cette auberge, / Espoir des affamés, où cognent sur le tard, / Blessés, brisés, jurant, priant qu’on les héberge, / L’écolier, le prélat, la gouge et le soudard.

     They can also be compared to this inn, / Hope to the starved, where in the night knock, / Injured, broken, cursing, begging to be lodged, / The schoolboy, the prelate, the prostitute and the soldier.

Verb

gouge

1. first-person singular present indicative of gouger
2. third-person singular present indicative of gouger
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of gouger
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of gouger
5. second-person singular imperative of gouger

Further reading

• “gouge” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Etymology

From Late Latin gubia, from Latin gulbia.

Noun

gouge f (oblique plural gouges, nominative singular gouge, nominative plural gouges)

1. gouge (tool)
2. (chiefly pejorative) woman

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (gouge, supplement)