goat

plural goats

1. countableuncountableAny ruminant of the genus Capra.

   Finally, would it be wrong to thank my pet goats too? If not, thanks to Biscuit, Bucket, and Watermelon for keeping things entertaining.

   2016, Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy, page 226

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   The first thing that greets you on entering the church is a notice asking you not to vex the goat, since it renders valuable service in keeping the churchyard tidy.

   1980, AA book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 164

   Folkestone: Network Rail and the White Cliffs Countryside Project have procured a herd of goats to keep vegetation on the slopes of Folkestone Warren under control, and to encourage rare species.

   2025 February 5, Howard Johnston, “Regional News: Southern”, in RAIL, number 1028, page 22

   1. uncountableThe meat of these animals.

      Hungrily, by firelight, we set to with damper and cold goat washed down by hot tea.

      1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 239

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      Joshua could not stop himself from scooping more goat on his plate: Paul had cooked it so long that the meat seemed to melt like hot, syrupy candy in his mouth. Joshua remembered goat as a stringy dark meat, but the red spicy mass before him was nothing like he recalled.

      2008, Jesmyn Ward, Where the Line Bleeds, Bloomsbury (2018), page 157

2. countableslanguncountableA lecherous man.
3. countableinformaluncountableA scapegoat.

   Fernando Rodney, the goat in Sunday's 10th inning loss to Tampa Bay, threw three nearly perfect innings in relief on Tuesday after being demoted from the closer role.

   2008 August 6, “Tigers already miss Jones”, in Royal Oak Daily Tribune, Michigan

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   1997, "1997 World Series", Game 7, bottom 11th inning, TV broadcast on NBC Sports, early morning October 27, 1997; words by Bob Costas Tony Fernández, who has worn hero's laurels throughout the postseason including earlier in this seventh game of the World Series, now cruel as it may seem, perhaps being fitted for goat horns.

4. countableslanguncountableA Pontiac GTO car.
5. countableuncountablespeech recognitionA person who is not easily understood by a speech recognition system; contrasted with sheep.
6. countableuncountableA fool, loser, or object of ridicule.

   “If Osterman wants to play the goat, why should you help him out?”

   2013, Frank Norris, The Octopus

   2 more examples

   Samaurez said over his shoulder, “In fact, I missed being the class goat by only three places.” Gwen patted his arm, “But, look H-Two, George Pickett was the goat and see how famous he became.”

   2008, Ned B. Ricks, Trusting Appearances: Things Are Not Always as They Seem, page 259

   ...Butch was the goat in that deal and innocent of the trap he was placed in.

   2013, Larry Pointer, In Search of Butch Cassidy

7. countableuncountableroller derbyA blocker who is isolated behind the opposing team's blockers, so as to slow down the pack.

present singular third person goats · participle present goating · participle past goated · past goated

1. transitiveTo allow goats to feed on.

   Rape and clover has yielded 283 sheep days of pasture, practically dry weather […] For the coming year it is planned to goat this area continuously

   1918, Agricultural Experiment Station, Director's Biennial Report, page 51

2. transitiveTo scapegoat.

   John Rocker, meanwhile, was spared from getting goated because he didn't blow a save

   2001 July 15, “A worthy Rusch to judgment”, in USA Today

3. transitiveroller derbyTo isolate (an opposing blocker) behind one's own blockers, so as to slow down the pack.

plural goats

1. abbreviationacronymAlternative letter-case form of GOAT (“greatest of all time”).

plural goats

1. alternativeobsoletepossiblyAlternative form of gote (“sluice, waterway”).

   ... the present new Sluice or Goat (as they call it) at the end of Hamorebeck, at its fall into Boston Haven, taking up the foundation of the old Goat, they met with the roots of Trees, many of them issuing from their several[…]

   1704, John Martyn (Londres), James Allestry (Londres), Henry Oldenburg, Philosophical Transactions, Giving Some Accompt of the Present Undertakings, Studies and Labors of the Ingenious in Many Considerable Parts of the World, page 1159

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   [...] the Trent floods, which override the sluices and goats, and which operate at present as a bar to the improvement of the drainage of the commons; and lately, by authority of parliament, a canal has been made in a similar way[…]

   1811, William Marshall, The Review and Abstract of the County Reports to the Board of Agriculture, page 34

   […] For the Sands from the Mouth of the Sluices and Goats would be carried off and the Haven so deep that their Commons and Low Fens will be will be drain'd in wet Seasons, and always be Supplied with fresh water above the Lock for the use and benefit of the Commons.

   1882, James Sandby Padley, The Fens and Floods of Mid-Lincolnshire: With a Description of the River Witham, in Its Neglected State Before 1762, and Its Improvements Up to 1825. With Maps, Plans, &c, page 19

plural GOATs · alternative G.O.A.T. · alternative G. O. A. T. · alternative GoAT · alternative GoaT · alternative Goat · alternative goat · alternative 🐐 · alternative 𓃵

1. abbreviationacronymslangAcronym of greatest of all time.

   Messi is the GOAT of football.

   1 more example

   Still wicked as Aleister Crowley, niggas know me well For heaven's sake, I'm the GOAT, you haters can go to hell

   2016, “Really Doe”, in Atrocity Exhibition, performed by Danny Brown ft. Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, and Earl Sweatshirt, via Spotify

2. UKinformalgovernmentA member of the "government of all the talents" proposed by British prime minister Gordon Brown.

   2011, Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee, Bernard Jenkin, Smaller Government: Report, Together with Formal Minutes One of the problems with the GOATs was that the parliamentary and political role was undersold to them.

   2 more examples

   The best talents; of course he was a GOAT.

   2009, Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee, Good government: eighth report of session 2008-09, volume 2

   Lord Jones of Birmingham, aka Digby Jones, the former director general of the CBI, said that in his year in the government as a so-called GOAT (a member of the Government Of All The Talents) he found the civil service to be 'honest, stuffed full of decent people who work hard'.

   2010, Philip Johnston, Bad Laws

1. astrologyThe constellation and zodiacal sign Capricornus.

   But although the Divine Egg had disappeared in a clap of thunder, he still had the Sign of the Goat.

   1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 137

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   The Balance shows redemption’s need; The Scorpion wounds He must endure; The Archer tells His coming sure; The Goat, His death in sacrifice[.]

   1862, [Frances Rolleston], Mazzaroth, or, The Constellations: Part III, London: Rivingtons, page 7

   Now, if you went down into the forest where the spring gum-tips gleam gold and ruby in whatever sunshine, Heaven thinks fit to apportion at this season to residents of the Dandenongs (who surely were all born Aquarians) what sign of the Zodiac would you expect to meet? Not Leo the Lion or Capricornus the Goat, though the Italians keep a few Capricorns for cheeses but chain them up. The goats I mean.

   1947 November 14, Mountain District Free Press and Frentree Gully News, Tecoma, Vic., page 8, column 2

   Synonyms: Horned Goat, Sea-goat

2. The eighth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar.

1. alternativeAlternative form of GOAT.

1. alternativeAlternative form of GOAT.