Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A flock of geese.
  • noun A cluster or group.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make a noise like a goose; cackle.
  • noun In fowling, a flight or flock of geese; hence, a chattering company.
  • noun Synonyms Covey, etc. See flock.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To make a noise like a goose; to cackle.
  • noun (Zoöl.), Prov. Eng. A flock of wild geese, especially when on the ground.
  • noun A gathering of people, especially a noisy one.
  • noun Any clustered group of related objects.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A group of geese when they are on the ground or on the water.
  • noun Any group or gathering of related things; bunch.
  • verb To cackle (like geese).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make a noise characteristic of a goose
  • noun a flock of geese

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English gagel, from gagelen, to cackle, probably of imitative origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English gagelen ("to cackle").

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Examples

  • That happened just a few moments ago in what we call the gaggle this morning with White House Press Secretary Tony Snow.

    CNN Transcript Jul 31, 2007 2007

  • It was about 11: 05 this morning, while while we were asking questions of Mr. Fleischer -- as we always do in the morning -- what we call the gaggle -- Gordon Johndroe, who is an assistant who works for Mr. Fleischer, came in and handed him a Post-it note it, and on that note it said, We must evacuate this section of the West Wing.

    CNN Transcript Jul 12, 2001 2001

  • If this gaggle is key to anything, it's doomed from the start!

    Are Americans paying attention to health care debate? 2009

  • The press corps is often referred to as a gaggle, as in a “gaggle of geese,” but that hardly conveys the strange divide between the press and the “principal.”

    Spoken from the Heart Laura Bush 2010

  • He spent several days haunting the meadow where his friend found the dead honker, hoping it was part of a flock or a gaggle or whatever the English word for a group of honkers was.

    The Year's Best Science Fiction 23rd Annual Collection Dozois, Gardner 2006

  • Suzanne Malveaux, you are in what the reporters call the gaggle, which is an off-camera briefing between the White House public relations arm and reporters every morning.

    CNN Transcript Oct 27, 2005 2005

  • The gods must be crazy, but a gaggle from the Greek pantheon are also having a disco-fueled, quip-filled blast in "Xanadu," the camp-tastic Broadway musical that just whisked into the Paramount Theatre on roller skates for a short touring run.

    The Seattle Times 2010

  • In March 1990 she called a gaggle of historians to Chequers to discuss the German character, or rather the likely ambitions and governing style of a united nation.

    Top stories from Times Online 2009

  • Better than talking about what a FREAK SHOW the gaggle is gonna be? we’ll see.

    Think Progress » VIDEO: Snow Says He Regrets Criticizing Bush 2006

  • The trouble for Kenowa is that it's not his battle-tested and legendary band of brothers, but the Bad News Bears version, a rag-tag gaggle of misfits from every corner of Her Majesty's Empire ... and Kenowa is second-in-command behind a prince with little skill or charisma.

    Rabid Reads: "A Darkness Forged in Fire" by Chris Evans 2009

Comments

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  • Gaggle is also an Orcadian dialect word used when 1) you make a mess or 2) you work clumsily or carelessly.

    July 1, 2009