gander
[gan-der]
- the male of the goose.Compare goose(def 2).
- Slang. a look: Take a gander at his new shoes.
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Origin of gander
before 1000; 1910–15 for def 2; Middle English; Old English gan(d)ra; cognate with Middle Low German ganre, Dutch gander; akin to goose, German Gans
Gander
[gan-der]
- a town in E Newfoundland, in Canada: airport on the great circle route between New York and northern Europe.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for gander
Contemporary Examples
Headwinds forced a landing at Gander, in Newfoundland, in the middle of a blizzard.
Then you get a gander at the full monty, as it were, and he looks like someone inflated him from the sternum down.
Under both the law and the ethics governing armed conflicts, sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
What was sauce for the Michael Dukakis goose, is sauce for the Michael Huckabee gander.
Just take a gander at trips planned for Richard Nixon by Henry Kissinger or for George H. W. Bush by James Baker.
Historical Examples
What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander: take that in your thought too.
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
Nurse had gone down cellar and the gander was in the goose-house.
Nurse picked Tommy up and shut the door so the gander could not get in.
He did not dare to go out for fear the gander would bite him again.
The goose and gander heard it too, and ran and looked down into a deep hole.
gander
- a male goose
- informal a quick look (esp in the phrase take (or have) a gander)
- informal a simpleton
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Word Origin
Old English gandra, ganra; related to Low German and Dutch gander and to gannet
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for gander
n.
Old English gandra "male goose," from Proto-Germanic *gan(d)ron- (cf. Dutch gander, Middle Low German ganre), from PIE *ghans- "goose" (see goose (n.)). OED suggests perhaps originally the name of some other water-bird and cites Lithuanian gandras "stork." Sometimes used 19c. like stag in reference to single men or male-only gatherings. Meaning "a long look" is 1912, from gander (v.).
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v.
"take a long look," slang, 1886, from gander (n.) on the notion of craning one's neck like a goose; earlier it meant "to wander foolishly" (1680s). Related: Gandered; gandering.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with gander
gander
see take a gander at.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.