Green’s Dictionary of Slang

goose v.3

1. (US und./gambling) to mark playing cards so as to improve the user’s chance of winning.

[UK]Sportsman 16 Oct. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [Y]ou can get cogged dice, ‘goosed’ cards, swindling padlocks, and ‘convex mirrors,’ to enable vou to [...] ‘win any game’ .

2. to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Pearl Nov. [ebook] ‘Things I Don’t Like To See’ [...] I don't like to see vulgar girls in the town / Pull their clothes up, and stand to be goosed for a crown; / Nor a man with light trousers, of decency shorn, / Stop and talk to young ladies while having the horn.
[UK]A. Crowley Snowdrops from a Curate’s Garden 25: Robert, Samuel, Thomas and Ulric goosed like good-’uns between the toes of his left foot.
[US]E. Field ‘A French Crisis’ in Facetiae Americana 19.
[US] in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 345: A coquettish glance / She acquired in France / Gave him ants in his pants, and he goosed her.
[UK]K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 86: He’s supposed to have started goosing when he was eight by the way.

3. to pursue women, to womanize.

[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[US] in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 18: A young fellow goosed her, / And roughly seduced her.
[US]H.A. Smith Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 144: They want to get lit and [...] goose a chorus girl.

4. to poke or tickle a person in the genital or anal area, usu. by a man to a woman.

[US]J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 138: To create nervous excitement in a person by pointing a finger at him or by touching or tickling him and making a peculiar whistle. [...] ‘They goosed him when he was drinking a cup of water, and he threw it in my face.’.
[US]H.E. Rollins ‘A West Texas Word List’ in DN IV:iii 226: goose, v. To tickle.
[US]Hecht & MacArthur Front Page Act I: He gooses Diamond Louie. diamond louie with a leap: Hey! For God’s sake! [...] that’s a hell of a thing to do!
[US]N. West ‘Miss Lonelyhearts’ in Coll. Works (1975) 264: As he passed her in the dark foyer, she goosed him and laughed.
[US]B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 175: A smaller Negro who had sneaked out to goose him.
[US]J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 149: He’d goose the hell out of you while you were going down the corridor.
[UK]‘Count Palmiro Vicarion’ Limericks 55: There was a young fellow named Brewster / Who said to his wife as he goosed her [etc].
[US]H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 89: Tony got real stoned and goosed some dame.
[US]‘Troy Conway’ Cunning Linguist (1973) 18: He stiffened as if I had goosed him.
[UK]S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 61: I’m on the Underground getting goosed in the rush hour.
[US]S. King Christine 424: The way he sometimes goosed her when he got a buzz on.
[Aus]Benjamin & Pearl Limericks Down Under 73: She preyed [sic] men would squeeze her / And tease her to please her, / And even go further and goosa.
[UK]T. Blacker Fixx 141: He reacted as if I’d just goosed his grandmother.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 18 June 14: This girl who goosed the Prince’s bum.
[UK]J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 54: The photographer has obviously gone for the just-goosed or just-about-to-be-goosed look.
[US]C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 159: Piejack goosing him crudely with the barrel of the sawed-off.
[US]J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 30: Dexedrine, Biphetmaine, Desoxyn. A gonad-goosing triad.
[UK]Observer Mag. 9 Jan. 11/3: As I bent over to examine the ceramic [...] he goosed me.
[US]N. Walker Cherry 44: Tommy was drunk as fuck. I was supposed to help him to not throw up on anybody or goose a slut or whatever it was they thought he might do.

5. (US) of emotions, to press, to push, to provoke, to enliven.

see sense 2.
[US]B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 140: If you ask me [...] the Guild has one foot in the grave — and it’s goosing itself with the other.
[US]J. Thompson Criminal (1993) 58: What about the d.a.? [...] Do I goose him today?
[US]K. Brasselle Cannibals 244: I have to goose my people and make eight thousand phone calls.
[US]S. Morgan Homeboy 23: The girl [...] whose charge it was to gaga, goose, or garotte incoming rubes into buying a drink.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 12 Aug. 8: Bruce’s scabrous, angry glee [...] with which he goosed and jabbed at the public’s prejudices.
[US](con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 629: ‘Raul’ goosed Jimmy Ray. Cash perks and meth.

6. of a person, to push, to poke.

[US]B.T. Harvey ‘Addenda -The Northwest’ in DN IV:ii 163: goose, v. To startle, as by jumping or poking.
[US]H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 83: The sun had [...] poked up a couple of playful fingers, goosing the last thin remnant of night.
[UK]W. Manus Mott the Hoople 148: Ever been goosed from behind by another car while doing sixty mph?
[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 96: He goosed him toward the sofa with the snub barrel of the shotgun.

7. (US) to accelerate a car; thus goose up, to move forward a short distance.

[US]E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 6: Get her off the highway [...] Goose her.
[US]R.L. Bellem ‘Death’s Passport’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 117/2: ‘Goose this thing.’ [...] He blooped that sedan up to seventy.
[US]C. Himes Real Cool Killers (1969) 13: ‘Better goose it.’ [...] ‘I reckon so,’ the driver replied laconically.
[US]C. Himes Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 54: He climbed in [to the cab] and leaned forward and said ‘Penn Station and goose it’.
[US]S. King Stand (1990) 150: He began to goose the gas pedal.
[US]‘Heat Moon’ Blue Highways 71: The engine turned hard, then started, and I goosed it pretty good.
[US]C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 33: Keyes goosed his little MG convertible across the causeway and made it to the motel in eighteen minutes flat.
[US]B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 157: Lovely Louise [...] goosin’ that big black chariot through a bend in the brush.
[US]J. Wambaugh Finnegan’s Week 266: She hadn’t noticed that tension was causing her to goose the gas pedal.
[US]S. King Dreamcatcher 578: If you could goose it ... even if just a little.
[US]L. Berney Gutshot Straight [ebook] [of a motorbike] Gina goosed the throttle and the bike’s seat squirted out from beneath him.
[US]J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 178: I goosed the gas [...] I cut north on Broadway.

8. to perform anal intercourse.

[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 88: anal intercourse [...] goose (dated).

9. (US) to grab.

[US]M. Rumaker Exit 3 and Other Stories 16: Angel smile on his face while one hand or the other gooses your wallet every time you turn to blow your nose for the departed?

10. to increase the volume on a radio, sound system or TV; the strength of the air-conditioning.

[US](con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 44: Wayne watched TV. Wayne goosed the sound. Wayne caught a press gig.
[US](con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 18: I goosed the [radio] dial and got sound.
[US](con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 252: My cubicle was wicked hot. I goosed the AC .

11. (US campus) to grasp someone’s testicles from behind, as a prank.

[UK]Penthouse Mar. 24: Goose, to: Slang term for [...] the grasping of someone’s testicles from behind.

12. to improve, to cajole into progress.

E. Shrake But Not For Love 60: There’s going to be a new fuel. [. . . .] Maybe you drive in and say goose my battery for me, Sam, and check the transistors.
[Can]Maclean’s (Toronto) 28 June 52: But what’s the use of goosing up wages if the cities’ workers live in dreary, faceless prisons.
[US]C. Hiaasen Double Whammy (1990) 211: Start pushing the thing [i.e. a TV show] hard. Goose the ratings.
[US]J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 37: The drugs that sealed the gig that lured the girl that goosed the career that fanned the habit.
[US]J. Ellroy ‘Where I Get My Weird Shit’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 37: LBJ goosed the Vietnam troop count.

13. to excite sexually.

[US]C. Cook Robbers (2001) 25: Goosing him, stirring that old goood thang.

14. to augment, to increase.

[US]E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 82: I thanked him and paid the bill, goosing the tip for his helpfulness.
[US](con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 133: Equipment rooms goosed the extra space.

15. (US drugs) to inhale a measure of a powdered narcotic.

M. Wilkerson ‘A Clean White Sun’ in ThugLit Sept./Oct. [ebook] [I] goose a line of flake off the kitchen counter.