Meanings
present singular third person gosthers · participle present gosthering · participle past gosthered · past gosthered · alternative gauster · alternative goster
- IrelandTo talk loudly and impudently; to boast or bluster.
1 more example
[H]e was always talkin' one nonsinse or another; an' among the rest o' his fooleries, he purtinded not to b'lieve in the fairies, the Leprechauns, an' the Poocas, an' he evin sumtimes had the impedince to purtind to doubt o' ghosts, that every body b'lieves in, at any rate. Yit sum people used to wink an' luk knowin' whin Failey was gostherin', fur it was obsarved that he was mighty shy o' crassin' the foord o' Ahnamoe afther nightfall[.]
1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 376
Origin
- Middle Englishgalstren“to make a noise or outcry”
- Englishgosther
The OED suggests derivation from Middle English galstren (“to make a noise or outcry”) (found only in the Ancrene Riwle), but the Middle English Dictionary glosses this same word as "to stink". Compare Middle Low German galstern (“demand shamelessly”), Old High German galstar (“chanting, crowing, an incantation”).
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
gosther. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gosther
“gosther.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gosther. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gosther,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gosther.
Source: gosther on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.