golden goose noun

1. The fabled layer of golden eggs, killed by its over-greedy owner
2. (also the goose that lays the golden eggs) a source of profit (figurative)

golden handcuffs plural noun (informal)

A substantial personal financial incentive or stake specifically designed by a company to constrain a valued employee into remaining on its staff

golden handshake noun (informal)

A large sum of money, or some equivalent, given to an employee or member who retires or is otherwise forced to leave a firm, etc (also golden goodbye)

golden hello noun (informal)

A large sum given to a much-wanted new employee on joining a firm

Golden Horde noun

The Kipchaks, a Turkic people, whose empire was founded in central and southern Russia by Batu in the 13c

golden hour noun (medicine)

The period immediately following a serious injury, when skilled treatment is urgently required

golden jubilee noun

A 50th anniversary

Golden Legend noun

(L Legenda Aurea) a celebrated medieval collection of saints' lives, by Jacobus de Voragine (1230–98)

golden mean noun

1. The middle way between extremes
2. Moderation
3. Golden section (qv below)

golden mole noun

Any of several bronze-coloured S African insectivores of the family Chrysochloridae, which look superficially like moles

golden number noun

A number marking the position of a year in the Metonic cycle of nineteen years

golden oldie noun (informal)

1. A song, recording, motion picture, etc issued some considerable time ago and still popular
2. A person who remains successful at a relatively advanced age

golden opportunity noun

A very favourable one

golden orfe noun

An ornamental yellowish-orange freshwater fish, kept in aquariums and ponds

golden parachute noun (informal)

An unusually lavish cash payment to a senior member of a firm on his or her dismissal following a takeover

golden pheasant noun

An orig Chinese species of pheasant, the male of which has a golden-yellow crown and lower back and orange-red breast and underparts

golden plover noun

A plover with yellow-speckled feathers

golden rectangle noun

One in which the ratio of width to length is the same as that of length to the sum of width and length

golden retriever noun

A breed of retriever with a thick, wavy, golden-coloured coat

golden rice noun

A genetically modified strain of rice, designed to provide increased levels of vitamin A

goldˈenrod noun

Any plant of the composite genus Solidago, with rodlike stems and yellow heads crowded along the branches

golden rose noun

An ornamental spray of roses made of wrought gold, blessed by the Pope on the fourth Sunday in Lent, sometimes presented to a dignitary or monarch in recognition of a special service

golden rule noun

1. The precept that one should treat others as one would wish to be treated by them
2. A rule of the first importance, a guiding principle
3. A rule of statutory interpretation, which allows the court to depart from a strict and literal interpretation of a statute where this would lead to an absurd result (law)

golden salmon noun

The S American dorado

golden saxifrage noun

A greenish-yellow plant (genus Chrysosplenium) of the saxifrage family

golden seal noun

1. A N American ranunculaceous plant (Hydrastis canadensis)
2. Its yellow rhizome, used in medicine

golden section noun

Division of a line so that one segment is to the other as that to the whole

golden share noun

A large share in a company, etc held by an institution or (often) a government, which prevents takeover by another company

Golden State noun (informal)

California

golden syrup see under syrup

golden wattle noun

Any of various kinds of yellow-flowered Australian acacia, esp Acacia pycnantha

golden wedding see under wed

golden years plural noun

1. A time of great prosperity
2. The period of one's life after retirement (euphem)

goose /goos/

noun (pl geese /gēs/ or, of a tailor's goose, goosˈes)

1. Any one of a group of birds of the duck family, intermediate between ducks and swans
2. A domesticated member of the group, descended mainly from the greylag
3. The female of such a bird (masc gander)
4. A tailor's smoothing-iron, from the likeness of the handle to the neck of a goose
5. A stupid, silly person
6. A prod in the buttocks (slang)
7. A game of chance once common in England, in which the players moved counters on a board, with the right to a double move on reaching a picture of a goose (obsolete)

transitive verb (slang)

1. To hiss off the stage (theatre)
2. To prod (someone) between the buttocks from behind
3. To grab or poke (a male) in the genitals from behind

goosˈery noun

1. A place for keeping geese
2. Stupidity

goosˈey or goosˈy noun

1. A goose
2. A blockhead

adjective

1. Like a goose
2. Affected with gooseflesh

goose-barnacle see under barnacle¹

goose bumps plural noun (informal)

Gooseflesh

gooseˈ-cap noun (obsolete)

A silly person

gooseˈ-club noun (old)

An association for saving to buy geese for Christmas, or to raffle for a goose

gooseˈ-egg noun

1. The egg of a goose
2. A swelling on the head due to an injury (N American)
3. A zero score (US)

gooseˈ-fish noun (US)

The angler-fish

gooseˈflesh noun

1. A knobbly, pimply condition of the skin, like that of a plucked goose or other fowl, due to erection of hairs through cold, horror, etc
2. The bristling feeling in the skin caused by this condition

gooseˈ-flower noun

The pelican-flower, a gigantic species of the genus Aristolochia

gooseˈfoot noun (pl gooseˈfoots)

1. Any plant of the genus Chenopodium of the beet family, so named because of the shape of the leaf
2. Also applied to any member of the family Chenopodiaceae

gooseˈ-girl noun

A girl who herds geese

goosegog, goosegob see under gooseberry

gooseˈ-grass noun

1. Cleavers, a Eurasian plant (Galium aparine) with a bristly stem and fruits that cling to clothes, etc
2. Silverweed

gooseˈherd noun

A person who herds geese

gooseˈ-neck noun

A hook, bracket, pipe, etc bent like a goose's neck

gooseˈ-pimples plural noun

Gooseflesh

gooseˈ-quill noun

One of the quills or large wing feathers of a goose, esp one used as a pen

gooseˈ-skin noun

Gooseflesh, horripilation

goose step noun (military)

A method of marching (resembling a goose's walk) with knees stiff and soles brought flat on the ground

gooseˈ-step intransitive verb (gooseˈ-stepping; gooseˈ-stepped).

gooseˈ-wing noun (nautical)

One of the clews or lower corners of a ship's mainsail or foresail when the middle part is furled or tied up to the yard

gooseˈ-winged adjective (nautical)

1. Having only one clew set
2. In fore-and-aft rigged vessels, having the mainsail on one side and the foresail on the other, so as to sail wing-and-wing

the goose that lays the golden eggs see golden goose under golden