Mother Goose

American  

noun

1. the fictitious author of a collection of nursery rhymes first published in London (about 1760) under the title of Mother Goose's Melody.

---

Mother Goose British  

noun

1. the imaginary author of the collection of nursery rhymes published in 1781 in London as Mother Goose's Melody

---

Etymology

Origin of Mother Goose

C18: translated from French Contes de ma mère l'Oye (1697), title of a collection of tales by Charles Perrault (1628–1703), French author

Example Sentences

In an "Oh no it isn't!" twist Lucie Goose, played by Dion Davies, in Mother Goose at the Courtyard in Hereford, said what a dame needed was star quality.

From BBC • Dec. 22, 2025

But since the TK expansion began last year, she said, all but one of her 4-year-old students who pay privately have left Mother Goose for TK.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 18, 2023

Like other pantomimes - classic Christmas productions in Britain - "Mother Goose" promises plenty of laughs for audiences of all ages.

From Reuters • Oct. 3, 2022

He won a Kate Greenaway Medal — considered the Oscars of children’s publishing — in 1966 for illustrating a book of nursery rhymes, “The Mother Goose Treasury.”

From Seattle Times • Aug. 10, 2022

From the doorway she could hear Old Mother Goose honking over her gosling.

From "The Great Gilly Hopkins" by Katherine Paterson