gaggle
[gag-uh l]
- to cackle.
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- a flock of geese when not flying.Compare skein.
- an often noisy or disorderly group or gathering: a politician followed by a gaggle of supporters.
- an assortment of related things.
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Origin of gaggle
1350–1400; Middle English gagelen (v.), gagel (noun); of imitative orig.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for gaggling
Historical Examples
On one side of her were four or five half starved squeaking pigs, on the other a flock of gaggling geese.
Alonzo and MelissaDaniel Jackson, Jr.
Their cry is almost indistinguishable from the gaggling of geese, and they fly in the same chain-like formations.
Wild Spain (Espaa agreste)Abel Chapman
As they fly they make a curious "gaggling" cry, which can be heard from a very long distance.
The Animal World, A Book of Natural HistoryTheodore Wood
Of waking dog, nor gaggling goose more waker then the hound.'
gaggle
- (intr) (of geese) to cackle
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- a flock of geese
- informal a disorderly group of people
- a gabbling or cackling sound
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Word Origin
C14: of Germanic origin; compare Old Norse gagl gosling, Dutch gaggelen to cackle, all of imitative origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for gaggling
gaggle
n.
late 15c., gagyll, with reference to both geese and women. Barnhart says possibly from Old Norse gagl "small goose, gosling, bird;" OED calls it "one of the many artificial terms invented in the 15th c. as distinctive collectives referring to particular animals or classes of persons." Possibly of imitative origin (cf. Dutch gagelen "to chatter;" Middle English gaggle "to cackle," used of geese, attested from late 14c.).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper