What does "gouge" mean?
Gouge: A bookbinder's tool for blind tooling or gilding, having a face which forms a curve.
Additional senses
- 2.An incising tool which cuts forms or blanks for gloves, envelopes, etc.. from leather, paper, etc. Knight.
- 3.(Mining) Soft material lying between the wall of a vein aud the solid vein. Raymond.
- 4.The act of scooping out with a gouge, or as with a gouge; a groove or cavity scooped out, as with a gouge.
- 5.Imposition; cheat; fraud; also, an impostor; a cheat; a trickish person. [Slang, U. S.] Gouge bit, a boring bit, shaped like a gouge.
- 6.To scoop out with a gouge.
- 7.To scoop out, as an eye, with the thumb nail; to force out the eye of (a person) with the thumb. [K S.] Note: A barbarity mentioned by some travelers as formerly practiced in the brutal frays of desperadoes in some parts of the United States.
- 8.To cheat in a bargain; to chouse. [Slang, U. S.]
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00