Dictionary

cook someone's goose en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈkʊk ˌsʌmwʌnz ˈɡus/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈkʊk ˌsʌmwʌnz ˈɡuːs/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Various folk etymologies have been suggested, but the true etymology remains unknown.

Meanings

1. (idiomatic, informal) To spoil one's plans or hope of success.
   • Well I don't care if it's a thing or a mammal or a skunk, he can't sleep on our money. I'll cook that mammal's goose! 1943 October, Robert McCloskey, “The Case of the Sensational Scent”, in Homer Price, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, December 1966, →OCLC, page 18:
   • "I am afraid Bill [William Joseph Donovan] is rapidly cooking his own goose by lobbying," Dykes recorded on 4 April. "[Walter Bedell] Smith is getting completely fed up with [Donovan]." 1941 April 4, D[aniel] K. R. Crosswell, quoting Vivian Dykes, “Forging the Mold”, in Beetle: The Life of Walter Bedell Smith (American Warriors), Lexington, Ky.: University of Kentucky Press, published 2010, →ISBN, part 3 (The Towering Figure—George C. Marshall), page 254:
   • A strange, awkward thought! Had Fleur cooked her own goose by trying to make too sure? 1921 September, John Galsworthy, “The Dark Tune”, in To Let, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 284:
   • One false step can cook your goose for good. Before you know it, there's such a big stink that it's smeared all over the newspapers. 1987, Sholem Aleichem [pseudonym; Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich], “[The Railway Stories] The Man from Buenos Aires”, in Hillel Halkin, transl., Tevye the Dairyman and The Railway Stories (Library of Yiddish Classics), New York, N.Y.: Schocken Books, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Schocken Books, [2008?], →ISBN, page 172:
   • To express his antipathy, the lawyer manipulates the judicial process, its language and technicalities, to show that if he was formerly unprepared to serve Guillaume the promised feast, he is now eager to help him cook his own goose. 1984, Donald Maddox, “Antipathiquelin and the Rhetoric of Torts”, in Semiotics of Deceit: The Pathelin Era […], Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press; Cranbury, N.J.; London: Associated University Presses, →ISBN, page 95:
   • I like this Goose Lake country better than any I've seen east of the Cascade range, and if some mishap don't cook my goose, I hope to give you a good account of it, if not of myself. 1867 September 28, Joseph Wasson, “Colonel [George] Crook’s Campaign”, in Peter Cozzens, editor, Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 1865–1890: The Wars for the Pacific Northwest, volume 2, Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, published 2002, →ISBN, part 1 (The Snake-Paiute War and after, 1866–72), page 63:
   • "Well," remarked Dobbie succinctly, "that rather cooks his goose, doesn't it?" 1931, Anthony Gilbert [pseudonym; Lucy Beatrice Malleson], chapter 6, in The Case against Andrew Fane, London: W[illiam] Collins Sons & Co., →OCLC; republished London: The Murder Room, 2004, →ISBN, section 1:
   • [W]hen is it reasonable to think that the Americans will be able to put in that immense army of three millions, fully equipped, each man with a hair mattress, a hot-water bottle, a gramophone, and a medicine chest, which they tell us will get to Berlin and ‘cook the goose’ of the Kaiser? [In a letter from F. S. Oliver to his brother.] [1918 May 2, John Terraine, quoting Frederick Scott Oliver, “The Gambler’s Fling”, in The Great War (Wordsworth Military Library), Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, published 1997, →ISBN, page 156:

Forms

Relateds

what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander · cooked goose · goose is cooked · wild-goose chase · kill the goose that lays the golden eggs

Synonyms

ball up · corrupt · disturb · vitiate · upset the applecart · put a crimp in · fuck up · jack up · drive a coach and horses through · soil · mess up · crab · botch · sour · mommick · mar · turn upside down · disrupt · stain · pollute · bugger up · contaminate · blight · foil · bungle · queer · bumble · mishandle · deprave · upset the applecart · spoil · undo · upset · do someone's goose · screw up · ruin

Translations (9)

hu bajt hoz rá (to spoil one's plans or hope of success) · de die Suppe versalzen (to spoil one's plans or hope of success) · it scompigliare i piani (to spoil one's plans or hope of success) · cy troi'r drol (to spoil one's plans or hope of success) · hu keresztülhúzza a számításait (to spoil one's plans or hope of success) · sh pomrsiti konce (to spoil one's plans or hope of success) · it conciare per le feste (to spoil one's plans or hope of success) · sh pokvariti račune (to spoil one's plans or hope of success) · hu keresztbe tesz neki (to spoil one's plans or hope of success)

wikipedia: Michael Quinion