gander
gander Lexical Profile
gander Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A casual look or glance.
"The mechanic asked me to pop the hood so he could take a gander at the engine."
A male goose, especially a fully mature one.
"The aggressive gander honked loudly and flapped his wings to protect the flock as we approached the pond."
• verb
To look or glance casually at something.
"He gandered at the antique watch in the display case, intrigued by its complex craftsmanship."
Word Nuance & Usage
While originally denoting a male goose, the word is most frequently encountered today in conversational English within the idiom 'take a gander' (meaning to take a look) or the proverb 'what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander'.
• Rhymes for gander
Word Origin & Etymology
From Old English 'gandra', derived from a Proto-Germanic base related to the word 'goose'. The informal meaning 'a look' emerged in early 20th-century American English, likely evoking the image of a goose craning its long neck to see something.
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.