Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a scolding, a reprimand.

[1805		C. Lamb letter to T. Manning 11 Oct. n.p.: Damn ’em how they hissed! It was not a hiss neither, but a sort of frantic yell, like a congregation of wild geese [R]].
1865		G.F. Berkeley My Life & Recollections 276: On the adventure reaching the ears of the Duke of Wellington, the active experimentalist received considerable ‘goose’.

2. encouragement.

1939

Wodehouse Uncle Fred in the Springtime 240: ‘That I should have found you first crack out of the box like this is the one bit of goose I have experienced in the course of a sticky evening’.

3. an instruction, a warning to act in the required manner.

1952

(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 303: I give Timmy a good goose he should swear on his Bible never to squall about it.

4. a tip-off, a piece of information or a warning.

1986

J. Ellroy Suicide Hill 135: ‘You didn’t rag me on the media goose [...] a lot of innocent people are going to be hurting’.

5. see Winchester goose n.