Definition of "gouge"

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 leave it tolerably smooth by following one another so closely that the gouges become one long gouge or cut; [...]

1878 April, “How Lead-pencils are Made”, in J[osiah] G[ilbert] Holland, editor, Scribner’s Monthly, an Illustrated Magazine for the People, volume XV, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Scribner & Co., […], page 808

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 that needs fixing.

2015, Stephanie Butland, Letters to My Husband, London: Black Swan, Transworld Publishers, page 250

He squinted through frozen lashes, trying to make better sense of the valley beneath him, a gouge running east to west, so deep and narrow he could only see the bottom when they passed directly overhead.

2015, Brian Staveley, chapter 4, in The Providence of Fire (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne; book 2), London: Tor, page 60

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 sides of the rock free, and give the powder the greatest opportunity to "lift" without waste of power, the cost of drilling and blasting per ton is so low that a reduction of one-third, even if it could be made, would not greatly affect the general count; […]

1869, Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond, “Giant Powder and Common Powder”, in The Mines of the West: A Report to the Secretary of the Treasury, New York, N.Y.: J. B. Ford and Company […], page 34

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 sufficiently resistant to erosion to crop out. […] A "bull" quartz vein occurs in places along the contact of the gouge and the ore zone. It does not constitute ore.

1930, Edward Wilber Berry, “Systematic Descriptions”, in Revision of the Lower Eocene Wilcox Flora of the Southeastern States: With Descriptions of New Species, Chiefly from Tennessee and Kentucky ([United States] Geological Survey Professional Paper; 156), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, page 83, column 1

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.

2005, Jay A. Stout, To Be a U.S. Naval Aviator, page 63

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 next day's FRR test, […]

2013, Douglas Waller, Air Warriors: The Inside Story of the Making of a Navy Pilot, page 89

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 Glacier.

1950, François É[mile] Matthes, “The Domes”, in Fritiof Fryxell, editor, The Incomparable Valley: A Geologic Interpretation of the Yosemite, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, page 127

Gouges [...] are made of steel that is curved to varying degrees to "gouge" out excess wood.

1977 January, Penelope Angell, “Handmade with Care: Woodcarving”, in John A. Linkletter, editor, Popular Mechanics, volume 147, number 1, New York, N.Y.: The Hearst Corporation, page 94, column 2

[W]e simply sit in silence and let the day's events roll around the room like farts in a school cafeteria. Dad breaks the spell when he gets up to retrieve his wood and starts gouging it for all he's worth.

2015, Kathleen Cook Waldron, chapter 12, in Kathy Stinson, editor, Between Shadows, Regina, Sask.: Coteau Books, page 48

[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 caused by widespread fraud (i.e., the false promise by government and insurance to pay patients' medical expenses), but instead they mercilessly gouge their uninsured patients.

2008 November, William G. White, “The Physician’s Fee: A Historical Reflection”, in Eugene F. Diamond, editor, The Linacre Quarterly: Journal of the Catholic Medical Association, volume 75, number 4, Wynnewood, Pa.: Catholic Medical Association, page 299

Women like Rachel sail through life wrapping men around their little fingers and gouging them for everything they've got.

2014, Mia Ross, Sugar Plum Season, New York, N.Y.: Love Inspired Books, Harlequin, page 120

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 satisfactory results.

1863 February 7, Henry Hancock, “On the Superiority of [François] Chopart’s Operation and Excision of the Ankle in All Cases Admitting of Their Performance”, in James G. Wakley, editor, The Lancet: A Journal of British and Foreign Medicine, Physiology, Surgery, Chemistry, Public Health, Criticism, and News, volume I, number VI (number 2058), London: Published by George Fall, […], page 143, column 1

In milling, a blade with this irregularity in front slope causes the cutter to drag on one side and gouge on the other.

1909 January 15, Wilfred Lewis, W[illia]m H. Taylor, “The Development of a High-speed Milling Cutter, with Inserted Blades, for High-powered Milling Machines”, in Herbert Page, Armistead Cay, editors, Page’s Weekly: An Illustrated Newspaper Devoted to the Engineering, Shipbuilding Iron and Steel Trades, volume XIV, number 227, London: [Herbert Page], page 112, column 1

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

1930 November, Robert E[rvin] Howard, “Champ of the Forecastle”, in Jack O’Sullivan, editor, Fight Stories, volume 3, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Fight Stories, Inc.; republished in Paul Herman, editor, Waterfront Fists and Others, Holicong, Pa.: Wildside Press, 2003, page 155

For some time, Christian missionaries had been falsely accused of kidnaping Chinese children, gouging out their eyes, and killing them.

2014, Eunice V. Johnson, “Shaping China’s Reform Movements, 1891–1910”, in Carol Lee Hamrin, editor, Timothy Richard’s Vision: Education and Reform in China, 1880–1910 (Studies in Chinese Christianity), Eugene, Or.: Pickwick Publications, Wipf and Stock Publishers, footnote 28, page 63

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 in a clave, and the ſheave-holes are made in this manner: the length and breadth are firſt gouged out, and holes are bored half way through the block, along the part gouged out, with an augre of the ſize of the ſheave-hole; then the ſheave-hole is gouged and bored on the oppoſite ſide in the ſame manner, ſo as to meet the oppoſite holes.

1819, “Blocks”, in Abraham Rees, editor, The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and Literature. [...] In Thirty-nine Volumes, volume IV, London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, […]