Definition of "goose"

Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour; Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped.

1843, Charles Dickens, “Stave 3: The Second of the Three Spirits”, in A Christmas Carol

I'm sorry for you, but you're such a goose.

1906, Langdon Mitchell, “The New York Idea”, in John Gassner, editor, Best Plays of the Early American Theatre, 1787-1911‎, published 2000, page 430

Have you stopped to think, you gooses, that Andy might not wish you to give it away?

1994, Barbara Benedict, Love and Honor, New York, N.Y.: Jove Books, page 65

You gooses. I didn’t accept his proposal. Mrs Plackett did. She did because she would. Don’t you see?

2014, Julie Berry, The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place, New York, N.Y.: Roaring Brook Press, Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership

Surely I needn’t explain to you gooses that none of you, not even you, Caro, have the sort of dowry or connections or the appeal that such a match would require.

2019, Julia London, The Princess Plan, HQN Books

Come in, tailor. Here you may roast your goose.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iii]

She greeted Miss Lonelyhearts, then took hold of her husband and shook the breath out of him. When he was quiet, she dragged him into their apartment. Miss Lonelyhearts followed and as he passed her in the dark foyer, she goosed him and laughed.

1933, Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts

The witness stand. Goldminers giving evidence, sure he's violent didn't I see him with my own peepers chasing those poor kids up on the roof and he goosed my wife last Christmas. Violently. Just a forceful nudge of the knee.

1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 36

Almost everyone in McKay’s impossibly starry cast feels like they’re jumping into the SNL host role, game for some light comedic lifting while waiting for the pros to show up and goose the laughs.

2021 December 7, Jesse Hassenger, “Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence cope with disaster in the despairing satire Don’t Look Up”, in AV Club‎

The ensuing snarknado also seemed to goose the TV ratings. Hundreds of thousands of viewers switched on the movie after it began, suggesting that they’d gotten wind through Twitter of the bananas spectacle that was unfolding.

2023 July 10, James Poniewozik, “The Twitter Watch Party Is Over”, in The New York Times‎