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gouge.

Senses relating to cutting tools.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɡaʊ̯d͡ʒ/Canadian, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Standard[ˈɡaʊ̯d͡ʒ]Canadian, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Standard/ˈɡæʊ̯d͡ʒ/[ˈɡæʊ̯d͡ʒ]

  1. Senses relating to cutting tools. A chisel with a curved blade for cutting or scooping channels, grooves, or holes in wood, stone, etc.

    countable · uncountable

  2. Senses relating to cutting tools. A bookbinder's tool with a curved face, used for blind tooling or gilding.

    countable · uncountable

  3. Senses relating to cutting tools. An incising tool that cuts blanks or forms for envelopes, gloves, etc., from leather, paper, or other materials.

    countable · uncountable

  4. A cut or groove, as left by a gouge or something sharp.

    countable · uncountable
    The nail left a deep gouge in the tire.

  5. An act of gouging.

    colloquial · countable · uncountable

  6. A cheat, a fraud; an imposition.

    countable · slang · uncountable

  7. An impostor.

    countable · slang · uncountable

  8. Soft material lying between the wall of a vein and the solid vein of ore.

    countable · uncountable

  9. Information.

    US · slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English gouge (“chisel with concave blade; gouge”), from Old French gouge, goi (“gouge”), from Late Latin goia, gubia, gulbia (“chisel; piercer”), borrowed from Gaulish *gulbiā, from Proto-Celtic *gulbā, *gulbi, *gulbīnos (“beak, bill”). The English word is cognate with Italian gorbia, gubbia (“ferrule”), Old Breton golb, Old Irish gulba (“beak”), Portuguese goiva, Scottish Gaelic gilb (“chisel”), Spanish gubia (“chisel, gouge”), Welsh gylf (“beak; pointed instrument”), gylyf (“sickle”). The verb is derived from the noun.

verb/ˈɡaʊ̯d͡ʒ/Canadian, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Standard[ˈɡaʊ̯d͡ʒ]Canadian, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Standard/ˈɡæʊ̯d͡ʒ/[ˈɡæʊ̯d͡ʒ]

  1. To make a groove, hole, or mark in by scooping with or as if with a gouge.

    transitive
    Japanese and Chinese printers used to gouge characters in wood.

  2. To cheat or impose upon; in particular, to charge an unfairly or unreasonably high price.

    transitive
    The company has no competition, so it tends to gouge its customers.

  3. To dig or scoop (something) out with or as if with a gouge; in particular, to use a thumb to push or try to push the eye (of a person) out of its socket.

    intransitive · transitive

  4. To use a gouge.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English gouge (“chisel with concave blade; gouge”), from Old French gouge, goi (“gouge”), from Late Latin goia, gubia, gulbia (“chisel; piercer”), borrowed from Gaulish *gulbiā, from Proto-Celtic *gulbā, *gulbi, *gulbīnos (“beak, bill”). The English word is cognate with Italian gorbia, gubbia (“ferrule”), Old Breton golb, Old Irish gulba (“beak”), Portuguese goiva, Scottish Gaelic gilb (“chisel”), Spanish gubia (“chisel, gouge”), Welsh gylf (“beak; pointed instrument”), gylyf (“sickle”). The verb is derived from the noun.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.