Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a fool, an idiot, a numbskull.

1589		Nashe Death and Buriall of Martin Mar-Prelate in Works I (1883–4) 185: And so will your sonnes both, like a couple of goosecaps [...] as your father did.
1593		G. Peele Edward I in Dyce (1861) 383: Knowest thou this goose-cap?
1604		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 1 V ii: Out, you guls, you goose-caps, you gudgeon-eaters!
1616		W. Haughton English-Men For My Money D3: Well good-man, Goose-cap, when thou woest againe, / Thou shalt haue simple ease, for thy loues paine.
1622		Beaumont & Fletcher Beggar’s Bush IV iv: Why, what a goosecap wouldst thou make me!
1638		Ford Fancies Act IV: What a wise goose-cap hast thou shew’d thy self?
1641		Bartholomew Faire in C. Hindley Old Bk Collector’s Misc. 5: Among these you shall see a gray goose-cap [...] stand in his booth.
1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 103: The bun-sellers or cake-makers [...] did injure them most outrageously, calling them [...] jobbernol goosecaps, foolish loggerheads, flutch calf-lollies, grouthead gnat-snappers, lob-dotterels, gaping changelings, codshead loobies, woodcock slangams, ninnie-hammer fly-catchers, noddiepeak simpletons, turdy-gut, shitten shepherds, and other such like defamatory epithets.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Goose-cap, a Fool.
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 248: He that would be reckoned witty / By the grave Goose-Caps of the City.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1751		W. Kenrick Falstaff’s Wedding (1766) IV xii: Dost thou think me such a goose-cap.
1764		Foote Mayor of Garrat in Works (1799) I 169: My husband is such a goose-cap, that I can’t get no good out of him at home or abroad.
1781		Thrale Thraliana i 7 July 502: Dr Burney did not like his Daughter should learn Latin [...] because then She would have been as wise as himself forsooth, & Latin was too Masculine for Misses—a narrow Souled Goose-Cap the Man must be .
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1818		Morn. Post (London) 2 Jan. 3/4: Purblind old Goosecap was stumping along.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1845		R.S. Surtees Hillingdon Hall III 85: It was a charge by farmer Goosecap, against some of the independent, itinerant tribe.
1853		Era (London) 17 Apr.8/3: I beg you be still. Or some goosecap [would] have us trim our language.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1878		Sheffield Indep. 28 Dec. 10/4: A Goosecap — This is said of a foolish person, but more in sport than earnest, and scarcely ever but of children.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).

see separate entry.

(US) a detective.

1915

G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 129: So, with a lot of heavy-headed goose-feet on my trail, I’m gunna lay low till they forget my mug.

vaginal secretions.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
2003		J. Morgan on MessedUp.net 🌐 Puss Juice: Bitch Butter, clam jam, crotch oil, fanny batter, flap snot, French Dip, goose grease, crotch gravy, love juice.

see separate entries.

(UK Und.) a beggar; thus a confidence trickster.

1861		Dunfermline Press 30 May 1/6: Those half-famished looking imposters [...] who stand on the curbs of our public thoroughfares, and beg with a few sticks of sealing-wax [...] were known in Luther’s time as Goose-shearers.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

see separate entry.

(US) illegible handwriting.

1841		A.M. Maxwell Run Through the United States II 118: It will be your fault [...] having now got seated down to scribbling, if I drown you in undecipherable goose-tracks.
1863		W.L. Johnson letter 12 Feb. 🌐 My respects to all. Tell father to write. Write soon. Dont forget to answer these goose [text illegible: tracks?].
1871		O.E. Wood West Point Scrap-Book 255: My ‘goose-tracks’ did the cadets grieve, I’m Chaplain in the Army [HDAS].
1894		C.C. King Cadet Days 225: Benny’s performances the first few weeks won high marks, while Geordie’s ‘goose-tracks’ were rewarded with nothing above 2.
1954		Harder Collection n.p.: Goose tracks [...] illegible handwriting [DARE].
1968		in DARE.

see cook someone’s goose v. (2)

see sparrows flying out of one’s arse/backside under sparrow n.

(Aus.) to peer, the crane the neck.

1908

Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 16 Dec. 3/8: Those in front twisted their rubber depart ment, and [...] goosenecked at the place where her lingerie ought to have been.