goat n.1
1. a womanizer, a lecher; usu. as old goat.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Every Man In his Humour V i: This hoary-headed letcher, this old goat. | |
| Scornful Lady III ii: You old he-goat, you dried ape, you lame stallion, Must you be leaping in my house? your Whores, like Fairies dance their night-rounds, without fear. | |
| Anatomy of Melancholy 3.3.4.2: Thou old goat, hoary lecher, naughty man. | |
| Elder Brother IV iv: It shall, old lecherous Goate in authority. | |
| Hey for Honesty IV iii: Nay, take her to yourself, old impudent goat. | |
| Soldier’s Fortune I i: What an old goat’s this! | |
| Provoked Wife V iii: That goat there, that stallion there, is ready to whip me through the guts. | |
| London Terraefilius I 22: The Mistress of a Flogging-School, where a parcel of Old Fanatical Goats go to be Whip’d into their Leathery. | |
| Non-Juror I i: At the Tea-Table I have seen the impudent Goat most lusciously sip off her leavings. | |
| New Canting Dict. n.p.: Goat a Lecher, or very Lascivious Person. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725]. |
| Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 17: Mother Brown had in the mean time agreed the terms with this liquorish old goat. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | The She-Gallant 3: When I reflect upon my Emily’s beauty, I can’t wonder at his being caught; old Goat. | |
| Maid of Bath in Works (1799) II 209: He is sixty, at least: what a filthy old goat! | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
 | Samples of Sweethearts and Wives! [cartoon caption] I’ll get the blunt in the morning from her old Goat of a Keeper. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Spirit of Irish Wit 155: My lawful wife [...] was kidnapped [...] by an old goat. | |
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 195: The man of pleasure [...] ‘an old goat.’. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | N.-Y. Eve. Post 25 Feb. 2/2: The lady informed [him] that [...] she was under the protection of persons [...] who were determined to marry her to an old goat of 45 merely because he was rich. | |
| Crim.-Con. Gaz. 27 Oct. 79/3: Sir Francis Sykes as him old goat — berry natural indeed only him hab too many horns. | |
| Sam Sly 14 Apr. 2/3: That old hypocrite, Lieut. W—e [...] not to be so fond of calling people ‘old goats’. | |
| Peeping Tom (London) 3 10/2: The prince of Wales had nick-named him [i.e. Marquis of Queensbury] ‘Old Q’ and ‘The Old Goat of Piccadilly’ . | |
| My Secret Life (1966) II 285: The old goat always adopted to get a girl left alone with him. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | ‘The Ridiculous Family’ in Roderick (1972) 721: Susan thought Andy was too much of a ‘goat’ altogether. | |
| ‘The Play’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 16 July 47/1: The drarmer’s writ be Shakespeare, years ago, / About a barmy goat called Romeo. | |
| It’s a Racket! 226: goat — [...] an amorous individual. | |
| Foveaux 310: I took a tenner off a old goat the other night. | |
| Twelve O’clock High! (1975) 327: You [...] are a horny old goat. | |
| Always Leave ’Em Dying 31: The old goat! He’s gone out to Greenhaven to see her. | |
| Ruling Class II vii: I was this randy old goat’s mistress! | |
| Dear ‘Herm’ 153: The Old Goat is carrying on like he has hypod up his motor thru a set of monkey glands. | |
| He Died with His Eyes Open 47: He’s just a poor old goat. | |
| Dolores Claiborne 149: Bawling your eyes out with your apron over your head won’t save your daughter’s maidenhead if that smelly old goat really means to take it. | |
| At End of Day (2001) 36: The day the old goat comes home with any of that Viagra stuff’s the day she’s out the door. | |
| Times 19 July 2/1: Older men with a similar libido are labelled randy old goats . |
2. a dupe, a fool.
| Cobbler of Canterbury (1976) 18: The Goat! Cryes one of the women; the calfes head! said another; the asse-head! quoth the third. | |
| Coriolanus III i: Hence, old goat! | |
| Laugh and Be Fat 31: This gentleman thy praise doth briefly note, / Compares thy wit and senses to a Goate. | |
| ‘Dildoides’ in Rochester & Others Works (1739) 183: But see the fate of cruel treachery, / Those Goats in Head, but not in Lechery, / Forgetting each his Wife and Daughter, / Condemn’d these Dildoes to the Slaughter. | |
| Satirist (London) 10 Feb. 469/2: Granby and I make the goat up between us: / By all the poor fellow is very much jeered— / For he wears the horns, love, and / have the beard. | |
| Newcastle Guardian 12 Apr. 1/1: He cut it too small, so he spoiled it — the goat! | |
| Checkers 43: I [...] put twenty on it – I’m a goat if it didn’t win. | |
| ‘Andy Page’s Rival’ in Roderick (1972) 363: Well, you’re a bloomin’ goat, Andy, after this. | |
| Newcastle Courant 18 Nov. 5/2: ‘You shan’t go!’ ‘Don’t be a goat’. | |
| Maison De Shine 15: That’s ‘Lydia Thompson,’ or I’m a goat, an’ I know I ain’t. | |
| Mike & Psmith [ebook] ‘“There’s a P before the Smith,” I said to him. “Ah, P. Smith, I see,” replied the goat. “Not Peasmith,” I replied’. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Dec. 26/1: But the hash-house sport is a frightful goat. | |
| New York Day by Day 16 May [synd. col.] He believes the Bulls and the Bears [...] are not quite on the square with the ‘goats’ — his term of [sic] the gullible investor. | |
| ‘Joffre’ in War Poems 67: Bulgars at the Serbian throat, / Greece behaving like the goat. | |
| Anna Christie Act I: Easy there! [...] You old goat! | |
| Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 June 21/2: I was just ‘touching’ a fat old geezer, when the goat busted it up. | |
| Classics in Sl. 13: Ain’t one of them dumbbells game enough to be the goat and take Kate for their bitter half. | |
| Mules and Men (1995) 173: De Jack is Three Card Charlie who played me for a goat. | |
| Foveaux 256: I might have known that as soon as my back was turned [...] some goat’d go talking. | |
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | ‘Rightful Way’ in Jam. Dialect Poems 40: Yuh mean yuh such a goat! | |
| USA Confidential 62: The white man is frequently made the goat by rabid racists. | |
| Big Smoke 59: That big goat. | |
| Syndicate (1998) 86: Naida was trying to make me the goat. | |
| Sneaky People (1980) 90: Why, you old goat! | |
| ‘Senior Citizen Caine’ in Minder [TV script] 42: Well, keep the old goat under wraps until I get there. | |
| Indep . Mag. 29 May 7: It has also separated the friends from the goats. | |
| Guardian G2 10 May 7: We make absolute goats of ourselves. |
3. (US) an offensive (old) man, occas. woman.
| Psmith in the City (1993) 17: I [...] only got out because some silly goat of a chap —. | |
| ‘Cahoots’ in Smoke and Steel 45: Harness bulls, dicks, front office men, / And the high goats up on the bench, / Ain’t they all in cahoots? | |
| Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 206: I thought of sour old goats like Nulty who had given up trying. | |
| Shiralee 92: He’s a fussy old goat. | |
| Going After Cacciato (1980) 135: Hadn’t the poor old goat smiled to fix it and seal it? [...] He frisked the old man. | |
| ‘Healthy Competition’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Why don’t you shut your mouth you sarky old goat. | |
| Crumple Zone 125: There she is the crusty old goat, every day, standing around. |
4. the buttocks.
| Modern Flash Dict. | |
| Courtship of Uncle Henry 51: He could do with a kick in the goat. |
5. (US Und.) a Catholic priest.
| (ref. to c.1890) Always the Young Strangers 392: The goat in a town is the Catholic priest. |
6. (US) a racehorse.
| Taking Chances 71: Let a kid take care o’ your two goats. | |
| A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 16: A. Mutt’s tip on Sheehan was all to the good, but he could not leave well alone and had to dally with the other goats. | |
| ‘The New Fable of the Aerial Performer’ in Ade’s Fables 194: In a short time he was out at the Track every day, barking at the Goats as they hove into the Stretch. | |
| You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Goat: Horse. | |
| Gambling Secrets of Nick The Greek 220: Besides losing on that goat, I got to playing Stuss with a couple of grifters. |
7. (US) temper [backform. f. get someone’s goat ].
| ‘The Scrapper’s Revenge’ in El Paso Herald (TX) 13 July 14/5: In the third [innings] the umpire’s goat began to yield . | |
| You Should Worry cap. 4: When Hep got a flash of these two his goat kicked down the door of its box-stall and began cavorting all over the Western Hemisphere. |
8. (US) a slow or worthless horse.
| Five Thousand an Hour Ch. iii: ‘How fussy!’ commented Polly. ‘Which was the kind horse?’ ‘A goat by the name of Angora,’ he replied. | |
| L.A. Times 22 Apr. III 22: Horses are frequently called ‘goats’ or ‘sheep.’. | |
| ‘The Smokeroom’ in Referee (Sydney) 17 Dec. 16/6: ‘[A] man don’t back a hairy goat like that without good and sufficient reason’. | |
| Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 Dec. 18/3: [It was] a prad that to all intents and purposes had as much chance as a hailstone in hell. We picked him another goat in the next. | |
| Tomorrow’s Another Day 46: ‘Flying Fast. He’s lowered, too [...] ’ ‘Flying backwards—that’s what he ought to be called, the goat!’. |
9. (US campus) a student being initiated into a fraternity, a fraternity pledge; thus goat room, the room used for initiation.
| [ | | Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 22 Dec. 6/3: girls ride the ‘goat’ / Initiated Into a School Societ with All the Trimmings. [...] They used the ‘goat’ and several other instruments of torture that are to be found in the rooms of secret societies whose members are men]. |
| Current Sl. III:4. |
10. (US) a Pontiac GTO automobile [pron./reversal of GTO; note hotrod jargon goat, an old racing car, generally used when speaking of a driver ‘herding his goat’].
| Times Recorder (Zanesville, OH) 14 Nov. 6-B/3: How much Pure will this goat hold? [...] He don’t like goats and Mayflowers. | |
| ‘Of Being Darker Than Light’ in ThugLit Feb. [ebook] [H]e imagined being in a race with his father’s '69 Pontiac GTO. Richard Fowler called it The Goat. |
11. (US teen) an attractive boy.
| Hope College ‘Dict. of New Terms’ 🌐 goat n. The code word for a young attractive boy wearing baggy pants, loose fitting shirt, and carrying a skateboard. His laugh resembles that of a goat’s neigh. |
12. a caddy.
| Brown’s Requiem 41: I’m gonna have me a whole caddy shack full of Jewish goats. |
13. (US) one who graduates bottom of a class.
| In Pharoah’s Army 58: In my OCS class I’d finished forty-ninth out of forty-nine, the class goat. |
In derivatives
lecherous.
| Honest Whore Pt 2 (1630) II i: I must be beholden to a scald hot-liuered gotish Gallant. | |
| Roaring Girle III ii: You goatish slaves! | |
| Eng. Moor II ii: Clap those Goatish Roarers up. | |
| Fancies V i: Lecherously goatish and an Eunuch? | |
| Merry Maid of Islington 5: Did I out of a sound faith in you forget the Goatish Monster you entertained. | |
| Bellamira IV i: I’ll tear his Goatish eyes out. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(Aus.) used of a small hotel, town or other place to indicate the lack of amenities.
| [ | | Sydney Morn. Herald 13 Mar. 4/6: That will be a happy time for many a constitution dilapidated by sequences of mutton and infrequent beef, goat and galah at the public-houses, damper and johnny-cake and brownie and other strange combinations, only to be eaten by stimulus of hunger and not to be digested at all]. |
| [ | | Barrier Miner Broken Hill, NSW) 22 July 5/4: Schools Inspector D. E. Fraser left this morning per coach for Bourke and what he terms ‘Beyond-Back-o’-Bourke’ [...] Being tired of ‘goat and galah,’ he hopes, owing to the changed condition of the country since his previous visit, to sample ‘galatine of turkey’ en route]. |
| : One of the boundary riders [...] allowed his beard to grow during his illness, and for weeks afterwards, till the day he rode into the township of Goat-and-Galah. | |
| Albury Banner & Wodonga Express (NSW) 19 June 46/4: I found too much kindness and happiness in Hay, and have far greater knowledge of the ample living and splendid resources of that district, tliare could permit me to paint it as 'goat and galah backblocks’. | |
| Kalgoorlie Miner (WA) 4 July 3/4: The part of Romeo Whybrow, the proprietor of the Goat and Galah Hotel, was taken by Mr. J. Fyvie Dench. | |
| Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 9 Oct. 15/8: At one place, known as Goat and Galah, the boarders went on strike and demanded a change of menu. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Mar. 12/4: We dropped in at a goat-or-galah pub in a little western N.S.W. town. | |
| Travels in North Queensland 167: Some [...] were of the ‘goat and galah’ variety, the generic name given to pubs that supplied food of redoubtable nature [AND]. | |
| www.outbacknsw.org 🌐 The village [of Tilpa] grew at the junction of the Paroo and Bourke roads, a crossing place for stock and eventually the site for a telegraph office and pub, boasting menu items of ‘Goat and Galah.’. |
(Aus.) wave skis.
| Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] Billy had bought a couple of goat boats, or old-style, wave skis. | |
| Surfing World 🌐 The Short History of Goat Boats [...] a wave ski resembles a corn chip with a seat belt, or the love child of a surfboard and a luggage pod with fins. |
(US campus) a derog. term of contempt.
| Campus Sl. Apr. 4: goat breath – very derogatory term. Usually used by females in reference to males. I don’t want to go to the movies with John – he’s such a goat breath. |
see separate entries.
a peasant, a country-dweller.
| Swollen Red Sun 149: ‘We need ta get rid of that crazy old goat fucker’. | |
| FP 15 June 🌐 The Chechens or Dagestanis [...] get labeled ‘goat-fuckers’ by several thousand screaming white Muscovites. |
(US black) homemade or bootleg liquor.
| Deep Down In The Jungle 266: Goat-hair – Bootleg liquor. |
1. the vagina.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 37: Bidault, m. 2. The female pudendum; ‘the goat-milker’. |
2. a prostitute.
| DSUE (8th edn) 479/2: from ca. 1820. |
(W.I.) the ability that certain individuals supposedly possess to cause problems or frustrate the efforts of others; thus put goat-mouth on, to cause such problems; goat-mouth bite you? a question asked of one who seems unhappy or worried.
| ‘Leff-Out’ in Jam. Humour 19: Every-bady watch out [...] For me have bad goat mout. | |
| Quality of Violence (1978) 9: Why, now that we have a big decision to make, you must think that I of all people going to put a goat mouth on it? Eh? Tell me that! | |
| Adventures of Gurudeva 41: Mind you own business [...] Don’ put goat-mouth. | |
| Grandmother’s Erotic Folktales 20: He was only putting goatmouth loud on heself by saying that. | |
| Carnival 14: I usually get them wrong, inevitably I wind up putting goatmouth on myself. |
see goat-and-galah
(Aus.) a farm worker.
| Aus. Word Map 🌐 saddle frigger [...] ‘Also known as “goat rooter”. One who fits the stereotype is excited by farmin', is decked out in RM's, a cowboy hat, tight jeans and workshirt‘. |
see goat-fuck n.
(US) a peasant, a rural person, an unsophisticated person.
| in Current Sl. IV:3–4 (1970) 18: Goat roper, n. An agricultural student. | |
| ‘Lexical Data from the Gulf States’ AS LV:3 200: Goat roper. | |
| Loose Balls 301: She said, ‘You’re nothing but a goat roper.’ I turned to my local counsel and asked him what the hell a goat roper was. He said, ‘Well, that’s an insult. It means it’s somebody who’s not even good enough to rope a horse’. | |
| (con. 1975–6) Steel Toes 37: Goat ropers, klansmen, sodbusters, nazi motherfuckers. | |
| Long and Faraway Gone [ebook] The carny snapped around—snap!—and gave the goat roper a stare so electric with menace [etc]. |
see goat-fuck n.
(Irish) the real thing, the ultimate example.
| (con. 1940s) Borstal Boy 94: When there’s one of them here among you, the real Ally Daly, the real goat’s genolickers. |
Wales.
| Taffy’s Progress to London 3: Nine Sprats! why I thought they lived altogether upon toasted cheese in Goatshire? | |
| Taffy’s Progress to London 7: He wou’d be Reveng’d on those that thus presum’d to affront Goatlandshire. | |
| Acre-ocracy of England x: Mrs. S. of Goatshire, in Wales, is entered because she owns three thousand and one acres. |
sexual intercourse; thus dance the goat’s jig.
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Goat’s gigg, making the beast with two backs. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| ‘A dirty little story’ in eye mag. 8 July 🌐 The two of them dabbed the brush, danced the goat’s jig, dug in the whisker and swept the chimney until, just as he was about to do her a kindness, his sweater fell off and he had to put a new willy-welly on. |
(US gay) a long foreskin.
| Queens’ Vernacular. |
In phrases
1. (also burn someone’s goat, get on someone’s goat, get someone’s nannygoat, goat) to annoy someone; thus goat-getting, deliberate provocation to gain a psychological advantage; goat-getter, a malicious teaser.
| Life In Sing Sing 258: Goat. Anger; to exasperate. | |
| letter 16 Jan. in Tomlinson Rocky Mountain Sailor (1998) 201: The process of making a fellow mad, or sore, or doing something that is very annoying to him is called ‘getting his goat’ I don't know exactly where this expression originated, but one story is that there was a bluejacket at Goat Island who had a goat of which he was very fond, and which he kept secluded [...]. | |
| A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 45: What do we care, kid? We got Beany’s goat. | |
| ‘The Quitter’ in Big League (2004) 33: The scrappiest collection of fence breakers, umpire baiters, and ‘goat getters’ in professional baseball. | |
| My Life in Prison 189: I knew that would get the Captain’s goat, and it did. | |
| ‘The Revenge of Kid Morales’ in Taking the Count 276: The Fitzsimmons’ method of overawing an opponent, since known as ‘goat-getting’. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Ohinemuri Gaz. (N.Z.) 22 Nov. 1/4: The one thing that really ‘got their goat’ was having to sleep on terra firma. | |
| West Broadway 102: ‘The ones which get my goat are the second and third generation [immigrants] who still love the old country so that they are willing to do everything for it except go live there’. | |
| Confessions of a Twentieth Century Hobo 159: The tendency to ‘get the other man’s goat,’ etc., that one often notices in games, professional and otherwise. | |
| Bottom Dogs 12: Tisha didn’t get on to it and thought Lorry was trying to get her nannygoat. | |
| Flirt and Flapper 84: Flapper: No girl stands for a boy’s telling her off — Gee, it got my goat! | |
| ‘Chokey’ 128: Claude on one occasion so got the jailer’s goat that he was put in a silent cell. | |
| Loving (1978) 193: That dam kid’s attitude was what got my goat. | |
| Adam’s Rib 12: That kind of thing burns my goat. | |
| Jimmy Brockett 31: The old man was always getting on my goat. | |
| Crazy Kill 11: Unless he’s just trying to get Johnny’s goat. | |
| At Night All Cats Are Grey 167: Silly questions like these get my goat. | |
| S.R.O. (1998) 122: It always got my goat how women [...] had to call Joey a male if they wanted to stay in with the crowd. | |
| A Prisoner’s Tale 73: That’s what gets my goat. They won’t give me no release date, will they. | |
| Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 163: What got his goat was the song and dance routine women had to go through when they caught him with a colander in his hand. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Trainspotting 5: This cunt’s really gittin ma fuckin goat. | |
| Black Swan Green 304: What [...] gets my goat about gorgios is how they call us dirty. | |
| Ringer [ebook] n.p.: The mention of that flash bastard gets my goat, big time. | |
| Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 21: ‘They gon try to get your goat [...] Provoke you’. |
2. to impress, to move emotionally.
| N.Y. Eve. Journal 23 Apr. in Unforgettable Season (1981) 49: It was the little woman with tears of joy trickling down her cheeks and so wildly clapping [...] that got my goat. | |
| Sun (Kalgoorlie, WA) 27 July 8/6: [US speaker] ‘We won’t altogether admit that [Australian girls] “put one over” Uncle Sam’s daughters, but [...] “They sure get his goat”’. | |
| Valley of the Moon (1914) 102: Long laughed hoarsely. ‘He’s got your goat all right.’. |
3. to render nervous.
| Smoke Bellew Pt 7 🌐 Just keep a-coming and don’t look down. That’s what got my goat. Just keep a-coming, that’s all. | |
| (con. 1917–18) Wings (1928) 72: He got to thinking about it and it’s got his goat. | |
| ‘House of Kaa’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2007) 73: This thing’s getting my goat. First you knock off Lane [...]. |
(W.I., Bdos) in a state of absolute bliss.
| Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |
to gaze lecherously at, to leer.
| Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 16: He only answer’d by gracious nods of approbation, whilst he look’d goats and monkeys at me. |
1. (US) to lose one’s temper.
| Pearson’s Mag. 24 6/2: McFarland now lost his goat. With desperate energy he lashed out in a wild attempt to locate the Britisher. | |
| ‘Daffydills’ in El Paso Herald (TX) 15 Sept. 11: Catcher Chief Meyers lost his goat and taking off his mask slowly walked to the pitcher’s box. | |
| Silk Hat Harry’s Divorce Suit 13 Dec. [synd. cartoon strip] Okk-Okouk (Monkey talk meaning loss of angora). |
2. to lose one’s courage, one’s ability to fight.
| Psmith Journalist (1993) 209: I goes in and mixes it, and then I seen Benson losing his goat, so I ups with an awful half-scissor hook to the plexus. |
(Ulster) used of one who is sensible, ‘nobody’s fool’; also of objects, appreciable, substantial.
| Stomatologist 2 199: Please understand I’m no goat's toe. | |
| Mr. Wildridge of the Bank 107: But it was no goat's toe of a frost stopped the big waterfall. | |
| Drums Are Out 29: I used to think I was no goat’s toe myself at penning an essay. | |
| Blind Spot 104: Annie thought she was no goat’s toe. | |
| Slanguage. | |
| Gusty Spence 18: I thought we were ‘no goat’s toe’. |
1. (also play the silly goat) to lead a degenerate, dissipated life.
| Powers That Prey 11: Every dashed son of a hayrick thinks he can come down here and play the goat and go back home an’ forgit it. | |
| Mop Fair 23: Every head [...] was turned towards where the delightful Botfly was playing the goat. | |
| Harry The Cockney 162: I’m sick of playing the silly goat. I’m sick of mouching the streets and dodging after a lot of girls. | |
| (con. 1928) Holy Smoke 93: Don’t fiddlearse around playin’ the goat all the rest of your life! |
2. to mess around, to act ineffectually.
| Mike [ebook] ‘[I]t won’t do for Mike to go playing the goat’. | |
| No Man’s Land 239: You ain’t playing the goat with a dam lump of straw now. |
(Aus.) to surpass, to win.
| Roaring Nineties 182: ‘Cripes, can y’r beat it?’ Sam muttered. ‘Takes the goat’s tail!’ Blunt Pick agreed. |