Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Winchester goose n.

venereal disease.

1554		Bale Declaration of Edmonde Bonner 69: Sore bytten wyth a Wynchester gose, and not yet al healed thereof.
1585		Nomenclator 439: A sore in the grine or yard, which if it come by lecherie, it is called a Winchester Goose, or a botch .
1598		Florio Worlde of Wordes n.p.: Pannocchia, a cunt botch, a winchester goose.
c.1602		Shakespeare Troilus and Cressida V x: Brethren and sisters of the hold-door trade, Some two months hence my will shall here be made; It should be now, but my fear is this, Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss.
1608		Pennyless Parliament of Thread-Bare Poets in Harleian Misc. III (1809) 77: Those, that play fast and loose with women’s apron-strings, may chance make a journey for a Winchester pigeon.
1619		J.T. Westminster The Hunting of the Pox n.p.: Is this a Winchester Goose, quoth he, when he had fed his fill: / If ere I feast it so againe, shall be against my will [...] The Kitchen was too hote he said, the Cooke-roome doores were bar’d, / His Goose and gyblets scald and burnt, and all the feast was mar’d.
c.1625		Webster Cure for a Cuckold IV i : [He] had, belike, some private dealings with her, and there got a goose.
1630		J. Taylor ‘Taylors Goose’ in Works (1869) I 105: Then ther’s a Goose that breeds at Winchester, / And of all Geese, my mind is least to her: / For three or foure weekes after she is rost, / She keepes her heat more hotter than a tost. / [...] / From Fornication and Adultery, / From reeking Lust, foule Incest, beastle Rape, / She hath her birth, her breeding, and her shape.
1630		J. Taylor Works 170: [H]ee made many merry and mad vageries betwixt Turnebull-street and Burnt-wood spending freely, and faring deliciously; hauing a stiffe stomacke to digest all dishes, except Winchester Geese, and Newmarket Turkies.
1654		Citie Matrons 6: Such a Nipp I gave him of my Winchester goose, that it lasted him some 30 or 40 moneths .
1654		Citie Matrons 6: I met with a wanton Gallant, newly married, the Goose bitt him; he goes home to his Wife, gives it her [etc].
1654		New Brawle 9: No, no, no money, no Coney; if they would not be packing, I had a Chamber-pot to wash them out, or a Winchester goose for them to pull.
1659		Mercurius Democritus 3-10 Aug. 89: A most gallant harbour for small Frigots, out of which issued forth a small Vessel [...] laden with Winchester Geese.
[1669		‘Captain Squiers Lettany’ in Antidote against Melancholy 121: From a Whore that's never pleasant / But in lusty Wine and Pheasant, / From the watch at twelve a Clock, / And from Bess Broughtons button’d Smock].
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 378: goose. A cant term for a particular symptom in the lues venerea.
1869		Exeter Flying Post 1 Sept. 3/4: On the Southwark shore [...] were places of dissipation, on the rents of which the Bishops of Winchester flourished [...] But wickedness is a power that will have it’s way [...] and ‘Winchester Goose’ [was] brought back.
1887		Era 9 July 15/3: Blunders of Great Dramatists [...] In Troilus and Cressida [...] Pandarus talks of a ‘Winchester goose’.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 59: Certain bobo, m. The pox; ‘a Winchester goose.’.