gooseberry, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

gooseberry n.

1. a fool [punning on the popular dessert, a gooseberry fool, which is also soft adj. (1)].

1827		Egan Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. 182: She fixed on gooseberry jemmy, about two degrees removed from a simpleton, as the man of her choice.
1839		T. Hood ‘Rural Felicity’ Works (1862) IV 294: It served me right, like a gooseberry, fool to look for champagne out of town!
1870		Western Times 3 May 5/1: The powerful Drama of the ‘Idiot of the Mountains’ and the Farce of ‘Old Gooseberry’.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 490/1: ca. 1820–95.

2. a foolish statement.

1880		Sheffield Indep. 2 Oct. 12/2: That is surely the very largest (theoretical) gooseberry of the present season [...] if Parliament were sitting, one would call it a gigantic lie.
1893		Lowestoft Jrnl 18 Feb. 4/3: He discovered [...] that the prophecy on which he had acted [...] was but a ‘monster gooseberry’.

3. (US tramp, also gooseberry bush) laundry hanging on a washing-line, and therefore vulnerable to theft [from the era when clothes were draped over bushes to dry].

1848		implied in gooseberry lay
1904		‘Number 1500’ Life In Sing Sing 255: Gooseberry. A line of clothes.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 38: gooseberry [...] Current amongst yeggs, hobos and meanderers. A clothes line; laundry hung up to dry.
1926		N. Klein ‘Hobo Lingo’ in AS I:12 651: Gooseberry — a clothesline. [Ibid.] 653: Sniping a gooseberry—stealing off a clothes line.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 137: Some get their duds in the rummage shop, / Some buy in the stores instead, / I get mine off the gooseberry bush / When the folks have gone to bed.
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl. 40: gooseberries, n. Clothes hanging on a line.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 104: gooseberry Clothes on a line, a clothesline [...] gooseberry bush A clothesline.

4. (Aus.) a woman [? poss. misreading of juv. gooseberry, one who will not leave a couple to themselves].

1895

Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 33: Gooseberry, a woman.

5. (US) a small piece of excrement around the anus [var. on dingleberry n. (3)].

1944

in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 227: Pants pigeons flew / Where her gooseberries grew.

In compounds

gooseberry bush (n.)

1. see sense 2 above.

2. see also SE uses below.

gooseberry lay (n.) (also gooseberry picking, gooseberry trick) [lay n.³ (1)]

(UK/US Und.) the stealing of linen drying in the open air by tramps and thieves.

1848		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/2: Gooseberry Lay, to steal clothes hung out to dry.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 33: [G]ooseberry-lay, stealing clothes off lines.
1910		Truth (Perth) 13 Aug. 4/6: He will do a pipe for coppers, / Put the sister on her guard, / Do the ‘gooseberry trick,’ sir garnet, / For his chivvey it are hard.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 406: Gooseberry. Clothes on a line. Gooseberry pickings – easy stealing.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 458: Pick a gooseberry bush, v. To steal clothes from the line.
1930		D. Hammett Maltese Falcon (1965) 374: Spade asked pleasantly: ‘How long have you been off the gooseberry lay, son?’.

gooseberry picker (n.)

(US tramp) one who steals from clotheslines.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

SE in slang uses

In compounds

gooseberry bush (n.) [ext. of bush n.¹ (2a); it is this bush, of course, rather than the fruiting variety, beneath which a child is allegedly born]

1. the pubic hair.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. see also sl. compounds above.

gooseberry case (n.)

a bald head.


1841		Bell’s Life in London 22 Apr. 4/4: Jones [...] counter hits with the left, heavy on Mason’s ‘gooseberry case’.

gooseberry grinder (n.) [ety. unknown; ? ref. to the effect on the digestion and thus defecation of unripe gooseberries]

the buttocks; esp. in phr. ask Bogey the gooseberry grinder, euph. for ‘ask my arse’.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Gooseberry grinder; the breech. Ask bogey, the gooseberry grinder; ask mine a-se.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

gooseberry-eyed (adj.)

having eyes that look like boiled gooseberries, grey and lifeless; thus gooseberry eyes n.

1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Gooseberry-Eyed. One with dull grey eyes, like boiled gooseberries.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		R. Waln Hermit in America on Visit to Phila. 2nd series 28: A little goose-berry eyed or so.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 90: Gooseberry-eyes — grey ones.
1848		Paul Pry 20 Nov. n.p.: It does not look well to get drunk until your eyes look like two stale gooseberries.

gooseberry wig (n.)

a large, badly combed wig.

c.1786

Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Gooseberry Wig. A Large disordered Wig.