goad
a stick with a pointed or electrically charged end, for driving cattle, oxen, etc.; prod.
anything that pricks or wounds like such a stick.
something that encourages, urges, or drives; a stimulus.
to prick or drive with, or as if with, a goad; prod; incite.
Origin of goad
1Other words for goad
Other words from goad
- goad·like, adjective
- un·goad·ed, adjective
Words Nearby goad
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use goad in a sentence
Thus began Johns’s career-long fascination with signs and symbols — not as a subject for representation, but as a goad to pure painting.
Seeing Jasper Johns: Blockbuster exhibition reveals a brilliant but bleak legacy | Philip Kennicott | September 29, 2021 | Washington PostHe had no choice but to take up the goad and to do what he did.
Daniel Menaker, author and celebrated editor at the New Yorker and Random House, dies at 79 | Harrison Smith | October 29, 2020 | Washington PostExperts and politicians goad the White House on with demands for tough actions against Russia that they surely know will fail.
Maybe the public display of pro-Gaddafi sentiments acts as a goad for the killings.
Libya Is Still Riven by Violence as Loyalists and Rebels Alike Keep Killing | Jamie Dettmer | July 12, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTPaul, by talking up his isolationism, would goad Romney into sounding like Dick Cheney.
Michael Tomasky: Why Iowa Is Mitt Romney’s Do-or-Die Moment | Michael Tomasky | January 2, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
Social and cultural insecurity has also served as a goad to Mormon productivity and achievement.
He knew how to improvise, how to lead a fellow actor into a state of mind, how to goad them into their best performances.
Egypt is like a fair and beautiful heifer: there shall come from the north one that shall goad her.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version | VariousHe called to her, he rallied her; he signalled to Thyrsis to help him—to inspire her, to goad her to new endurance.
Love's Pilgrimage | Upton SinclairThe mahout reached down with his silver tipped goad and touched the elephant on the knee.
The Adventures of Kathlyn | Harold MacGrathThe mahout, fully awake to the danger, beat the old rascal mightily with his goad.
The Adventures of Kathlyn | Harold MacGrathIn his hand he carried a long-handled ox-whip, with a short goad in the butt of it.
Earth's Enigmas | Charles G. D. Roberts
British Dictionary definitions for goad
/ (ɡəʊd) /
a sharp pointed stick for urging on cattle, etc
anything that acts as a spur or incitement
(tr) to drive with or as if with a goad; spur; incite
Origin of goad
1Derived forms of goad
- goadlike, adjective
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
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